The city is creating a new housing system to help get homeless Edmontonians off the streets. Mayor Don Iveson said the new housing will be temporarily located at the Edmonton Convention Centre until March.
“This temporary facility provides those people with safety, services, and a pathway to permanent housing,” said Iveson.
The housing will also include meal services, day programming, showers and storage.
The eight-million dollar plan will be funded through the provincial and federal pandemic relief fund; however, Iveson says they will need more funding from the provincial government to continue the housing system past March.
“We do need the provincial government to step up within their jurisdiction with interim housing and supports and long term support commitments.”
The residents of communities near the site have expressed concerns about having a homeless shelter in their communities; however, the city says the decision is better than doing nothing.
“The alternative is we leave people out on the street, we create this social disorder, we create conditions for the pandemic to run loose in the vulnerable community and overwhelm our health-care system,” said Iveson.
Iveson, says the homeless population downtown deters investors and prevents foot traffic for local business owners, making it one of the greatest economic risks for the city.
“One of the biggest risks to getting people to come back downtown to support our local businesses who are struggling so much is the social disorder we’re seeing because homelessness has not been solved,” Don Iveson.
The new housing system is part of a three-phased plan to resolve the homelessness issue.
