Edmonton homeless encampments being removed

City of Edmonton crews moved in Friday morning, taking down a homeless encampment which has been growing on 95 Street, north of the LRT tracks.

The teardown is part of a phased approach which started earlier this week.

“We’ve heard of other cities in the country who do something similar,” Jackie Foord, who is a branch manager with social development with the city, told Global News.

The overall process started several weeks earlier, involving a multi-agency approach.

People were assessed for things like their mental health requirements, potential social benefits and housing before being told in advance of the encampment teardown.

“Through that process, we identified 50 people who wanted a place to live,” Foord explained.

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“My customers come in and they express their concern.”

2:35 Crews move in to remove some Edmonton homeless camps

Many area business owners welcome the intervention.

Stephanie Cai says there’s never been any major incidents, but expressed concern about social disorder involving needles and urination that “I have to clean up every day.”

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On 95 Street, Rob Skolarchuk has watched the encampment across his business grow as the other sites were cleaned up.

“I get it’s a difficult problem,” Skolarchuk explained, motioning to the site, “but this isn’t the answer, clearly,” he said of the migration.

The city continues to advocate for provincial cash for permanent supportive housing; no new money was made available in the recent provincial budget.

“We do recognize there’s a clear need for this.”

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The Community and Social Services minister indicates the province is working with community agencies and suggests the limited resources available could be leveraged with other partners. But who they might be remains unclear.

“That’s why I’m waiting to hear back from the experts in the field to help me determine what that’s going to look like,” Minister Rajan Sawhney said.

The city admits without new supportive housing units in the pipeline, the encampments will likely return.

Dawn is one woman who was told to leave. She doesn’t want to go to a shelter, preferring to leave that to others in more dire straits.

Global News spoke with her on Wednesday, as crews cleared an encampment site in front of the Hope Mission of 106 Avenue.

When asked where she’ll go now, Dawn replied: “Like I said, I don’t know. I have no idea.”