Lauren Boothby - Yesterday
The best way to meet the needs of precariously housed people in Edmonton is to respect and include them in creating solutions, a council committee heard Tuesday morning.
Wet streets reflect the lights from City Hall on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, in Edmonton.
More than a dozen people urged the community and public services committee to hear and reflect their wishes and experiences as the city updates its affordable housing strategy . Difficulty affording a place to live, problems navigating and getting support from the social services and housing systems, and desiring to be treated with dignity were common themes.
Some said they didn’t think politicians would really listen.
Twilene Moisson said she was forced to leave her home after someone damaged her door while she was hospitalized for COVID-19. She began to cry after speaking about a history of abuse, saying people need to stop painting everyone who is homeless with the same brush.
“After you pay rent, you’ve paid your bills, you’re lucky if you can barely buy groceries,” she said. “They set people up here, and then they knock them down, and now we’re all living in tents — it’s coming winter … People walk around and shun these guys? They work harder than any goddamn person that works hard in a paying job.”
Sydonie Okheema moved to Edmonton from the Northwest Territories expecting it would be an affordable place to live. But she spends nearly half of her income on rent, saying if the city wants to end poverty they need to address the cost of rent.
“We’re human. There’s stuff that happens, or you lose a job. That can happen to anyone at any time.”
Newcomer challenges
Ali Mahdi, speaking on behalf of Multicultural Health Brokers , an agency helping newcomer Edmonton families navigate government bureaucracies , said newcomers are in a housing crisis. He sees first-hand their struggles with affordability and says there needs to be more affordable rental homes with several bedrooms to accommodate large families.
“If we do not address the housing crisis of the newcomer and refugee population, it will lead to a new generation and demographic of homelessness. This is why the city should give the housing crisis for our population the same priority as the housing projects for the homeless population.”
Graham Nserko told councillors he’s been caught in a cycle he can’t get out of. He came to Canada as an international student but had to leave school before completing his degree because of family and financial issues. He couldn’t work because of his immigration issues, started couch surfing, and then became homeless during the pandemic.
“It feels like you’re just stuck in a system, and that system just keeps rolling. If you roll with it, you’re lucky. If it leaves you behind, you’re left behind,” he said.
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Direct investment in affordable and supportive housing, leveraging funds from the province and federal government, investment in housing social supports, and leveraging city-owned lands to improve the affordable housing supply were some of the most common themes heard in engagement by the city.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, who was grateful social design and research firm InWithForward facilitated many of Tuesday’s speakers, said these stories will help the city meet peoples’ needs including rental housing and social supports.
“We have a huge need for deep subsidy in housing, particularly those who are renters, and that’s where we need to focus,” he told reporters Tuesday. “Looking at what people are saying and then finding solutions based on their lived experience — I think it is going to help us make better decisions in the long run.”
Coun. Keren Tang wants to dig deeper into these stories because they give a glimpse of where the system is failing people, she said.
“I think for too long, we haven’t really honed in on those voices … they’re struggling to get by and survive,” she said.
She wants the city to look at how its regulations could be contributing to problems, such as having people living in vehicles being evicted from city-owned parking lots.
Affordable housing shortage
Edmonton is expecting a housing shortage impacting 59,000 households in core housing need, including a shortage of 40,000 affordable rentals, by 2026.
A new housing needs assessment by the city for its updated affordable housing strategy found housing policies and programs must focus on renters, and governments need to make deliberate plans to address this as the private market will not be able to solve it. Some groups, including people with disabilities or health and mobility challenges, single mothers, seniors, Indigenous peoples, and those with mental health and addictions issues are faring worse than others.
Ahead of Wednesday’s homeless count in Edmonton, Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH) said homelessness is the tip of the iceberg where housing becomes unaffordable.
“ECOHH wants people to send the premier and the prime minister a message that it is time for a significant investment in non-market housing to end this long-drawn out pain,” president Nadine Chalifoux said in a news release.
Committee recommends funding End Poverty Edmonton
Meantime, End Poverty Edmonton (EPE) representatives were on the defensive Monday as councillors questioned the not-for-profit on its approach and effectiveness, and its progress toward fixing problems highlighted in a scathing analysis by the city last year.
That analysis found EPE couldn’t show what impact it was making on poverty, didn’t have a way to measure its success, lacked involvement of people in poverty, lacked clarity and transparency in governance, and there was a general lack of clarity on roles and responsibilities within the organization.
Ultimately, councillors voted to give EPE the $600,000 held back last year, but funding will need to be finalized at a future city council meeting.
Committee members questioned EPE representatives ahead of the vote about how they can ensure they are making headway on their goals.
“Ultimately, are we making progress to end poverty?” executive director Erick Ambtman responded on Monday, adding they will soon release metrics for measuring success.
Sohi said he needs to see a clear plan and progress toward the “systems change” the group is working towards.
“I continue to support the work you’re doing, but I just want to know the path and demonstrating value for money, that these are transformative changes we are making that will give us benefits not next year, but maybe five or 10 years from now.”
Coun. Jo-Anne Wright asked if the “chaotic and disorganized culture” identified in an updated report from this year has changed since then.
Ambtman believed the issue had been sorted. EPE, he said, has gone through an elaborate human resources overhaul, the governance issues are being sorted out and clear work plans are being created.
Tang said she’s seeing progress and looks forward to the work on metrics EPE will release soon.
“Recognizing there are still some of these ongoing issues that need to be resolved … I just want to flag that is something I will continue to keep my eye out for,” she said. “While poverty is difficult to measure and quantify, I think there is a way to tell really compelling stories about how we are alleviating that.”
Despite voting in favour Monday, Wright said she wasn’t sure how she will vote when this comes to council.
“I was hoping to have seen more results from it, so I will take the time to be thoughtful about it.”
lboothby@postmedia.com
@laurby
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