EDMONTON — The number of homeless people using shelters has dropped significantly in Alberta because more and more are getting permanent roofs over their heads, the province’s housing minister said Thursday.
Two years into a long-term provincial program to build more homes for the homeless, Jonathan Denis said shelter usage has dropped in the seven major cities by an overall average of six per cent.
“That’s quite significant to me because in a difficult economic climate you would expect to see that (figure) go up, but in fact it’s going down,” said Denis, after making the announcement in a Calgary shelter centre.
“My conclusion is our programs are having an impact.”
Alberta has about 3,500 shelter spaces.
Denis acknowledged that a better economy and people leaving the province can alter the shelter numbers, but he said the decrease is nonetheless significant.
In Edmonton, the rate has fallen by 21 per cent — or 660 people — between 2008 and 2010, according to ministry figures.
In Fort McMurray, it has dropped by 320 people, or 42 per cent, in that frame.
In Lethbridge, it has been cut in half, representing 35 people.
Thursday’s announcement marked the second anniversary of the government’s 10-year-plan to end homelessness by 2019.
The goal is to transition the homeless out of temporary shelters to permanent homes and then give them rent help, drug addiction counselling and other supports to keep them on their feet.
“Two years into it we’ve been able to house just over 3,000 formerly homeless people in Alberta,” said Denis.
He said shelters will always be needed, especially when bitterly cold winter temperatures force the homeless inside to survive.
“Shelters are great, but at the same time it’s the difference between managing the problem and ending it,” he said.
“The permanent housing problem focuses on ending it.”
The province is building subsidized housing projects in cities through an open-tendering process and private-sector partnerships.
“Over the last four years it would have cost over a billion dollars more if we did government-built (projects),” he said.
“Since I’ve taken over, the budget has gone down by 36 per cent because of these partnerships.”
Premier Ed Stelmach, who was with Denis, said the 2011-12 budget delivers almost $9 million more to help another 500 people get off the streets and into permanent housing.
He said $4 million will be used to provide rent help to about 1,000 people who have gotten off the street into permanent homes. They no longer need programs such as drug addiction counselling, but still need extra dollars to make the rent.
An extra $100 million will be freed up for housing developments for homeless Albertans or those on low incomes.
The long-term plan was developed following a report in 2008 from the Alberta Secretariat for Action on Homelessness. It is similar to programs running in cities such as Denver, New York City and Portland.
The theory is that shelters will never solve the long-term problem because, to get back into society and a job, homeless people need stability and a permanent mailing address.
The report estimates that under the old system it costs taxpayers almost $115,000 a year to care for a chronically homeless person. The Housing First program estimates it can cut that cost by more than two-thirds.