Social agency finding Edmonton homeless not 'utilizing shelters more' as province lauds camp crackdowns

The Alberta government says the police crackdown on homeless camps in downtown Edmonton has been a success so far, but one social agency serving the homeless disagrees.

Many of the streets and sidewalks in central Edmonton that were packed with people living in encampments a few months ago are now free of tents and tarps, with newly erected fencing preventing camps from re-forming.

In mid-January, provincial ministers held a joint media conference with police announcing a zero-tolerance policy for homeless camps.

The province also set up a navigation centre to help people from those camps connect with social and financial services.

Jason Nixon, Alberta's minister for seniors, community and social services, said Tuesday more than 400 homeless camps have been taken down while hundreds of people have received help through the navigation centre to supports for housing, addictions, health care and "avenues that have been able to move them on into much safer locations."

"Anybody who will go for a drive down Jasper, or go watch an Oilers game can visibly see that there has been a change in this city," Nixon told media at Edmonton City Hall on Tuesday following a meeting regarding homelessness with the city's mayor, the federal housing minister and the Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations grand chief.

"The good news is we’ve achieved that change at the same time as giving individuals help that were in those encampments."

A spokesman for Boyle Street Community Services says many people who were living in those camps are still on the streets, however, with some living more covertly in the river valley or staying in one place for a shorter length of time than before.

"We know that people will couch surf or end up in precarious housing situations where they might have to pay for a spot on a floor," Jonathan Harline, communications team lead for Boyle Street Community Services, said in a statement to CTV News Edmonton.

"Some will go deeper into the river valley, and some just set up more mobile camps with shorter stays."

Harline said obtaining more information on where people are and where they go "is an organizational priority at this time, but we're finding that people aren't really utilizing the shelters more."