Increasing number of Edmontonians riding the line between poverty and homelessness

EDMONTON -

As winter looms, social agencies in Edmonton are preparing for what they expect will be a busy season.

The Edmonton Food Bank has helped more people than normal throughout the pandemic and expects as both the price of living continues to increase and supports like the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) end, that demand will not be going down any time soon.

The food bank puts out statistics every March. In 2019, they served more than 21,000 people through the hamper program. That number spiked by 4,000 in 2020 and again this past March to 28,000.

"Somebody might not have needed our services and our help," said Tamisan Bencz-Knight, a spokesperson for Edmonton's Food Bank. "And now they do because they can't afford all the food, or they have to get to work and that fuel cost.

"The challenge is is the volumes of people needing our help right now."

Many Edmontonians are straddling the line between poverty and homelessness. According to the city, about 300 people became homeless just this month.

About 100 people a month are being housed through organizations like Homeward Trust.

"You have to think about homelessness in terms of an inflow and outflow, every month new people enter homelessness and every month exit it," said Christel Kjenner, City of Edmonton affordable housing and homelessness director.

"There are more people falling into homelessness, and there's the same amount of people or less who are available in the non-profit sector to provide those housing services," she added.

Prior to the pandemic, Kjenner said the balance had been toward alleviating overall homelessness, with the city housing 40 per cent of those identifying as homeless between 2008 to 2018.

"Since the onset of the pandemic, we've seen that inflow and outflow has shifted and gone the other way. We see an overall increase in homelessness every month."

Kjenner added that overall homelessness has doubled during the pandemic. In December 2019, there was about 1,300 people experiencing homelessness. As of this month, that number is closer to 2,800.

"While there are 2,800 people experiencing homelessness now, there are thousands more at risk," she said.

Instead of converting the convention centre into a shelter this year, the city plans to provide smaller shelter spaces throughout Edmonton this winter.

"The city has developed a set of minimum shelter standards that we expect our partners to operate with, looking at things like adequate privacy, sufficient access to showers, and other critical things," Kjenner said.

Those standards now reflect that it is better to provide smaller shelter spaces in areas where people need them.

"People feel a lot safer in environments where it's smaller, there's more privacy, and more interaction with staff to be connected with supports and housing," Kjenner added. "Homelessness is not limited to one part of the city. It might be more visible in areas of the central core, but there are people experiencing homelessness in all parts of the city."

Kjenner says that plan is funded until the end of 2021, but council will debate a request for further funding of the program in November.