Jerry McFeeters — or Uncle Jerry, as he’s known in and around Edmonton’s homeless population — said the time he spent in a large-scale homeless encampment helped him get sober.
“In that encampment I had a sacred fire that allowed me and everyone else there to be human,” said McFeeters.
“The camp absolutely gave me a chance to look at my issues and allow me to do it without somebody … looking down on me.”
Despite McFeeter’s positive experience in the camp, complaints about homeless encampments have skyrocketed in recent years – they’ve gone up over 1,000 per cent in the last seven years.
The city is looking at a new way to deal with encampments, as some councillors, city staff and homeless advocates say the way the city has dealt with them for years is ineffective and needs to change.
City council’s community and public services committee met Tuesday to discuss the plan, after a report found the city’s approach has been underfunded and understaffed with a lack of accountability, coordination between agencies and goals.
Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette said the practice of breaking up encampments is futile and causes more problems than it solves.
“As soon as you break it up, we see that people have nowhere to go, they get desperate, we see incidents spike where we need emergency calls,” said Paquette.
“Then, lo and behold, everyone who is displaced ends up in another encampment just a few blocks away.”
Instead, the city said it is looking to try something new by working to get people into permanent housing while ensuring encampments are as safe as possible.
To start, the city wants to identify 100 people and create a targeted specific plan for getting them into housing.
“There is a slow transition in building trust, so that people move themselves from tents in the streets, into something a little bit more permanent, and finally into housing and recovery,” said Paquette.
“It is that staged approach that is community-driven.”
Paquette said there is a “huge gap” between living on the street and finding housing.
“That gap is where we lose everyone and it’s where we pour a ton of money,” he said.
Candace Noble, director of housing and outreach at the Bissell Centre, said the plan should work but more needs to be done to keep people from getting to the stage of homelessness where they are sleeping rough.
“We need formalized prevention and diversion programs… we need an increase in inclusive day and overnight shelter spaces and we need persistent investment in affordable and supportive housing,” she said.
“Without that systemic approach, we will be successful in housing 100 unsheltered people but it’s quite likely that there will be an increase in unsheltered homelessness after the duration of this plan,” said Noble.
“We need a different approach,” said Mayor Amarjeet Sohi.
Sohi said he wants to see a more comprehensive plan where people can gather and heal with culturally appropriate supports.
The funding needs to come from the province, Sohi said.
“We can eliminate encampments tomorrow if there’s a political will from the province to take the responsibility seriously,” he said.
Sohi said while the latest budget gave him a little hope with money for housing and emergency shelters, Edmonton has not been given a fair share when it comes to funding to support people experiencing homelessness, addictions and mental health issues.
Hunter Baril, press secretary for the ministry of seniors, community and social services, said the provincial government provided $187 million for emergency shelter space last year.
“Over the past week in Edmonton, we have averaged 78 per cent occupancy in homeless shelters throughout the city,” Baril said.
Baril added last month the province announced $120 million in “shovel-ready” projects that would add 1,100 new affordable housing units across the province.
There are almost 2,800 homeless people in Edmonton, 1,320 of whom are sleeping outdoors or in shelters, according to Homeward Trust’s count from April 3. There are only 1,200 shelter spaces in Edmonton, 64 per cent of which were occupied as of Monday.
The discussion took up most of the day with the committee providing a number of options, but the final decision will be brought to council in the future.
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