Mayor Don Iveson believes the federal and provincial governments have fallen behind when it comes to funding supportive housing for homeless individuals.
“If all orders of government had stayed as committed as the City of Edmonton has been for the last seven years, we’d be much closer to the goal of ending homelessness,” he told reporters during a news conference when asked how likely it would be to reach the goal of having a place for everyone to call home by the year 2019.
WATCH: Edmonton homelessness drops 24% in 2 years: Homeward Trust
One of the priorities of the plan: ensuring an adequate supply of permanent, affordable housing with appropriate supports for people who are homeless, is far from being completed. When the plan to end homelessness was first launched in 2008, there was a goal of one thousand permanent supportive housing units in the first five years of the project. So far, just over 200 have been built.
“How realistic it is to achieve that goal within the next three years is still a function of the commitment of the senior orders of government to fund programs and especially fund new units of housing,” Iveson told reporters and added if these spaces become available it could save taxpayers in both healthcare and justice costs.
The mayor says he hopes to see funding for supportive housing in the upcoming provincial and federal budgets.
READ MORE: Alberta NDP to table 2017 budget on March 16
Edmonton’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness has seen a significant decrease in the number of homeless on Edmonton’s streets.
“While we are making headway on a number of the goals in the current plan, there is still a long way to go,” Iveson said.
Homeward Trust’s biennial homeless count is used to track changes and trends in Edmonton. On Oct. 19, 250 volunteers conducted a 24-hour long count of the city’s homeless population.
The 2016 count recorded 1,752 homeless people in Edmonton. It’s a 24 per cent drop since the last count in 2014, That count found just over 2,300 people were homeless in the city.
READ MORE: Edmonton non-profit voices concern over latest homeless count
The city and Homeward Trust are now updating the plan and looking for adjustments that can be made to strategies in order to meet their goals.
Edmontonians are invited to take an online survey to provide feedback until April 13, 2017.
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