Keith Gerein: Edmonton’s shelter crisis deserves better than a sloppy last-minute response

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Commonwealth Stadium is being employed this week as a kind of elemental fortress in which the Canadian men’s soccer team is forcing its warm-weather opponents to play through Edmonton’s infamous icy weather.

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In the coming weeks, that same stadium may need to be used as a different kind of winter shelter as the city scrambles to address a major shortage of shelter beds for Edmonton’s homeless population.

The scenario that is emerging is much colder than anything that has been thrown at Mexicans and Costa Ricans, and although it is not a game, time is definitely running, as are the temperatures.

The grim situation presents itself in a new city ​​council report and was also highlighted by Mayor Amarjeet Sohi at a scrum with journalists on Friday.

Essentially, the number of homeless Edmontons has exploded during the COVID era, which will hardly surprise anyone who has visited downtown or certain other areas of the city in recent months.

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Officials believe this population has doubled, and then somewhat, in recent years to around 2,800 people, more than enough to fill an entire section in Commonwealth Stadium, upper and lower bowls.

Exactly why this happened and why we weren’t better prepared for it are questions that deserve further investigation, although the more pressing matter is finding enough warm and safe spaces for this crowd during the winter. And right now, the numbers are nothing short of staggering.

In the report, city administrators say that around 1,600 homeless people are being “provisionally housed,” meaning they are finding places to sleep on their friends’ couches or in temporary or transitional housing.

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However, that still leaves around 1,200 people needing emergency shelter beds most nights, which is a big problem considering that the city’s traditional providers currently have room for just half of them.

Yes, agencies are making various efforts to create more space in existing facilities or operate some temporary shelters during the winter, and there is optimism that the province will get funding for that.

But even if everything works, it still won’t be close enough.

“Without more mitigation measures, there will be a significant gap in services,” says the city’s report, which is the bureaucratic way of declaring that 350 people may have nowhere to go each night.

Without more spaces, somewhere, those people will end up in alleys, businesses, hospitals, police stations, and other places where they shouldn’t be. That will mean more lives lost, more costs to the health and justice systems, and more difficulties in driving economic recovery at the core.

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There is also a similar concern around the availability of day shelter spaces, which could become particularly crucial if other gathering places, such as libraries, were to temporarily close again due to COVID. The new city council will be asked at budget time to approve the funds to keep a number of small venues in operation during the winter, although it still seems insufficient.

For the past two years, the city had a couple of large facilities, the Edmonton Exposition Center and the Edmonton Convention Center, with ample space to accommodate vulnerable people 24/7, while offering isolation beds for those confirmed or suspected of having COVID.

But those spots aren’t available this time around, so the focus has been on the heated pods on either side of Commonwealth Stadium.

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A provincial funding and service provider is still needed for the capsules to work. If those obstacles are overcome, the stadium could seat between 120 and 150 people, which still potentially leaves a space of up to 230 spaces.

(Of note, social services officials estimate that only 30 to 40 percent of Edmonton’s homeless are vaccinated against COVID. As such, there is a significant risk of outbreaks in shelter facilities, which could affect the number of people who can safely host).

If this all feels like a messy, sloppy, and inappropriate response built on lots of wishful thinking, you’re not alone.

Hopefully, the efforts will be sufficient to avoid a serious crisis this winter, but hope is not a reliable plan. We need to start crafting serious strategies right away to ensure a more robust and organized response for 2022-23 and beyond, especially since COVID and its economic effects are likely to be with us for some time.

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Of course, the best long-term approach is to stop relying so much on shelters and instead focus on affordable and supportive housing.

In that sense, I took note that the province finally published its affordable housing strategy A couple of weeks ago.

I’ll have more to say in a future column about the radical overhaul you propose. However, I will say now that while some innovations in this sector are likely to be necessary, I wonder if this time of great need is the best time to change the system, especially in ways designed for the province to discharge costs and responsibilities into the sector. private.

Regardless, in the meantime, it would be an idea for Edmontons to donate what they can to social service agencies, be it money, food, or warm winter clothing.

With the government agitating on this issue, we must all ensure that our city acts as a winter retreat not only for a soccer team, but also for our most vulnerable neighbors.

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