No matter who you are, your race, your income, or where you live in Alberta, you and your loved ones deserve to be safe. Everyone should be able to live a fulfilling and dignified life in our province free of fear or insecurity.
Despite reports that Alberta is becoming safer, many are not feeling that way. While we have enormous prosperity in our province, we are also seeing enormous poverty, which is sometimes mistakenly equated with social disorder and crime. Alberta homelessness under the UCP has surged toward 5000, the highest recorded since at least 2019. If we don’t diagnose the problem correctly, we’ll end up with the wrong treatment. Compounding the problem in Alberta is that we have not seen solutions scale with it, and policy decisions made at the provincial legislature are reducing support for the most vulnerable. At its core, homelessness is a housing problem and to put it bluntly, higher rents means more tents.
Increases in homelessness, amputations, and those suffering from challenges with mental health makes us uncomfortable: as it should. Albertans, especially Edmontonians, are generous people. We volunteer and donate in record numbers. We look out for one another, and embody a “love thy neighbor” ethos present in our community leagues. We know that in times of abundance we need to give, and in scarcity, give twice.
The Alberta governments homeless related deaths in edmonton jumped to 421 in 2023. If we were truly concerned about public safety, our emphasis would be on those experiencing homelessness because they are citizens of Alberta who are most likely to be victimized in public. Men experiencing homelessness are nearly 10 times more likely to be the victims of homicide than those who are housed. Women who are experiencing homelessness are much more likely to be victims of crime than men, and crimes against women are much more likely to be under-reported. Women are also more likely to be under-reported in statistics around homelessness, meaning there are more women put at risk than the data shows. One study found that 78% of people who living outside had been victims of crime, and only 21% of these incidents were reported.
Poverty and the breakdown of the social safety net, including childhood or generational trauma is a driver of crime. We see statistics across the country showing an increasing number of people are one missed pay cheque away from not being able to pay their bills. The path out of poverty is immensely more difficult than the path into it an as always an ounce of prevention such as a rent supplement does more than a pound of policing shelter and medical care once spiraled into homelessness.
The proliferation of de-humanization of those in poverty, unhoused or living rough is deeply concerning, and as citizens, we need your leadership to push back against it. Our country’s multi-generational commitment to anti-racism and reconciliation requires nothing less of us.
So let’s talk about what the problems really are and what the solutions really are: Affordable housing is the foundation for generational success in decreasing homelessness and poverty.
We often hear about the Nordic countries' success in ending homelessness. What is often less understood is that success started nearly 90 years ago. After the serious economic and social challenges of the 1930s, Nordic countries focused on social welfare, with good and affordable housing being the foundation. Serious investments were made, and considerable political leadership focused on creating dignified and affordable homes. That effort led to, for instance, more than 20% of the housing stock in Sweden being affordable housing. That high percentage, present in all Nordic countries, is the foundation on which the end to homelessness was built - and a necessary pre-condition of the same.
TAKING ACTION: Surplus School Sites... this week we approved a number of surplus school sites for the purposes of developing more affordable homes, providing more housing choices, and helping integrate families into neighbourhoods with parks, playgrounds, services, and much more. I try to raise my children with the mantra "every new neighbour is a potential new best friend" and I know these future homes will likewise receive a warm welcome from neighbours. Rezoning surplus school sites marks a generational opportunity for Edmonton to increase its supply of affordable housing. Affordable housing provider CIVIDA has 8700 families on their waitlist and are adding 700 per year. This is a national crisis and we are taking collective action as a community.
We have a serious deficit of affordable and dignified housing, in fact, the lowest amount of non-market supportive housing per capita in the country, with over 46,000 families in core housing need. We need political leadership to build up that supply... On matters like surplus school sites, supportive housing, or infill, our decisions will have a generational impact. We have a long way to go, but each decision that gets us closer and sets a precedent that moves us in the right direction will make an incredible impact on our neighbours who will one day get to live there and have housing security and the dignity that comes along with that.
WE HAVE THE MONEY, it is just unfairly distributed. Maclean's Magazine reports that as a group, the ten richest Canadians combined net worth has ballooned over the last two decades to $261 Billion compared to a paltry $60 billion in 2004. Collectively enabling this opulence and stark inequality for the top ten while thousands die is one hell of a policy choice, Canada. According to the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, we could end homelessnes across canada for $4.4 billion a year for the next decade-- a bargain when we consider homelessness costs the Canadian economy $7 billion each year. Ending homelessness would yield a 2;1 return on investment, let alone the moral imperative.
Our children are watching us. I still have a vivid memory of being a 9 years old and one evening I came upstairs and cried beside my parents bed at the injustice of poverty, powerfully portrayed through this song by The Manhattan Transfer. "sign reads: gentleman with a family will work for food"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N5yK6LKSgw
