WATCH ABOVE: A provincial program meant to help the most vulnerable in our society has actually put them in dangerous situations. Tom Vernon explains.
EDMONTON — They are some of our province’s most vulnerable citizens: children in families in need of emergency housing.
Since Edmonton doesn’t currently have a family-friendly shelter, some families were being placed in hotels and motels by the provincial government’s Alberta Works program.
But, a recent police investigation found the conditions in some of those places were shocking.
“Mould, asbestos, bed bugs, hot water not working,” recalled EPS Detective Kevin Fald.
“One of the inspectors that came out called it just like a Third World country.”
Initially, the officers were asked to look into an area of the city that had high crime and disorder rates. What they eventually uncovered was much more than they ever expected.
“Once we started to find out that we had children at risk – we had these volatile situations, these horrible conditions – it became more of a rescue mission,” said Fald.
“We soon found out what the issues were: a lot of families being placed in conditions that weren’t acceptable,” added Detective Roger Bellerose. “We started digging a little deeper.”
The police started identifying several issues contributing to the dire situations.
“We have a critical shortage of family-friendly shelters and we have a lack of safe housing in Edmonton, but also in the province,” said Fald.
The incredibly low supply of housing also compounded the issue.
“Increasingly, families are having a harder time finding rental accommodations and, as a last resort, are ending up in hotels or motels,” explained Mike Berezowsky with Alberta Human Services.
“This is particularly acute in Edmonton where there’s a pretty pronounced shortage of affordable housing.”
Berezowsky said the city currently has a vacancy rate of about 1.7 per cent.
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“We have people who are living month-to-month and in poverty,” said Homeward Trust’s Susan McGee, “and without that affordable housing, they face the option of sometimes the street or these short-term emergency accommodation measures.”
“I think anybody involved would agree that some of the situations that are in some of the hotels are really unacceptable,” she said.
She stressed Homeward Trust has been working diligently to get people out of hotels and motels and into permanent housing as quickly as possible.
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Police, the province and agencies like Homeward Trust are now working together to identify families using the government housing supports, inspect accommodations, and track acceptable and unacceptable housing options.
“There was really no intent to put them in that situation,” said Fald.
“I think the biggest thing that was happening here was people didn’t know.”
“Until we started going as a group with the task force, we just didn’t realize how dire it was for some of these families.”
The task force hopes the inspections will identify good properties, bad properties and spark dialogue with landlords and stronger collaboration between agencies.
“When they’re doing these inspections, they’re finding out that some of these hotels are not necessarily the best places for families to live,” said Berezowsky. “We’re making sure that when families do need to stay in a hotel or motel for a temporary time, that these hotels and motels are not included among those.”
Fald also wants to see standards put in place and enforced.
“We’ve had two fatality inquiries in the province of Alberta recommending minimum standards, annual inspections to these type of facilities,” he said. “There’s currently nothing.”
“There’s no restrictions on the licensing for these different establishments,” Fald added.
Homeward Trust estimates between 150 and 200 families are housed in motels or hotels, but that number is going down.
Police say a lot of families have been identified during this investigation and the task force wants to ensure they’re safe.
“We want to be holding people accountable for these conditions these people are living in,” said Bellrose.
“This has gone on for quite a while. This isn’t something that’s just happened overnight,” he stressed.
“Things need to get back in check. There needs to be some people held accountable out there. It needs to change.”
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