Watch above: The 2014 homeless count is underway in Edmonton. The count is done every two years and as Fletcher Kent reports, officials believe the numbers will be quite different than they were two years ago.
EDMONTON – For 17 hours on Thursday, volunteers will be trying to determine how many people in Edmonton are homeless and who those individuals are.
Between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m., 300 Homeward Trust volunteers will conduct the 12th point-in-time count of the city’s homeless population.
The count is done every other year. In 2012, it identified 2,174 Edmontonians without a home.
The goal of the count? To monitor changes and trends in the homeless population.
“We are committed to ending homelessness in Edmonton,” said Susan McGee, CEO of Homeward Trust.
“Knowing the scale of the challenge, and how best to meet it, is an important part of reaching our objective.”
“There are many causes of homelessness and the count is another way of measuring the work that lies ahead.”
For the first time, volunteers will ask people if they are veterans who served in Afghanistan. The federal government wants to get a clearer picture of the number of former soldiers who are now homeless.
The last two counts revealed decreases from the highest number counted: 3,079 in 2008. However, McGee says it’s too soon to say if the 2014 count will show another decrease.
“The numbers in the homeless count could go either way,” she said. “But the work that has happened has proven that housing first works. We’ve housed, of those 3,200, mostly chronically homeless indivuduals, and people that I think, standing back six years ago, many in the community would have said weren’t ‘house-able.’ And they’re doing very well in their housing.”
“There are many factors that affect homelessness,” McGee added.
“With in-migration to Edmonton and a low vacancy rate, many are struggling to find and maintain housing.”
“We are seeing more use of drop-in centres and overnight shelters. Yet, we have made an impact as a community, housing more than 3,000 people over the past five years. The purpose of the count is to understand the challenge ahead.”
Edmonton’s count will coincide with counts in other Alberta communities this week so that organizations can work together on standard methodology. It will also offer a broader picture of homelessness across the province.
“The count gives us a idea of where the general direction is going,” explained McGee. “There’s a margin of error in every count, but we try to stick to the same methodology each year, so we can rely on it for that reason. It does support other agencies as they are doing their work, and kind of identifying – particularly for groups like youth or our Aboriginal community members – what we can do better to address their needs.”
The count results and a report will be released before the end of 2014.
Comments