Human Resources Committee on Dec. 3rd, 2009

[Bev Matthiessen]

I think people with disabilities probably get left out more when it's left to the private sector, because there has to be a dollar value there, as there always has to be.

To give you an example, in the Alberta building code, when you build a hotel, you don't have to have accessible rooms. If you are a person with a disability and you want to stay in a hotel, maybe this hotel has one room or two rooms that are accessible. They don't see a value in having people with disabilities stay there. The hotels are full anyway, so why build accessible rooms?

It's the same with child care spots. How many of those are actually accessible to kids with disabilities? I don't think a lot of them probably are.

When the province or the federal government gives money for building any kind of infrastructure, all of that infrastructure has to be accessible to people with disabilities.

I get notices from public affairs here saying that the province is giving money to build something in some small town. And then they say, right under that, that they're going to have special housing over there for people with disabilities. It shouldn't be that way. All that money should be for accessible buildings so that we don't have a situation where some spots are for people with disabilities and the rest aren't. All government money should be put into accessible services for people with disabilities.

I've gone a little beyond answering about the private sector, but I think that's pretty much our experience: people with disabilities kind of get left behind.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Once again, I want to thank the witnesses for being here today. We realize that you men and women are on the front lines making a difference every day. As I said, if we can take some recommendations back through our committee to the government, that is the intent of what our study is all about.

Thank you, once again, for taking time to be here.

With that, I'll suspend the meeting for half an hour.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), our study on the federal contribution to reducing poverty in Canada will continue.

We were just suspended for an hour. I appreciate your patience as we told you 11, then 10, then 11. It is 11, so we're going to get started. I want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule.

I think you're already aware--you've been talking to some--that we've been studying this issue for well over a year, closer to two years. We have to deal with legislation as it comes up, so that's why it hasn't been directly. We've been out east, we've been out west, we've been north, and now we're just finishing off today in Edmonton, tomorrow Winnipeg.

We appreciate the recommendations you're going to give us as a committee, that we're going to put in the report to send back to the government to suggest some of the things we can look at doing a better job on. That's why you're here today, to talk about your own experiences and any recommendations you may have for us. I apologize again for the delay, but thanks for being patient and for being with us.

I'm going to turn the floor over--I'm assuming both of you will be able to answer questions, and maybe one of you is presenting. Are you both presenting?

You're going to present, Dave? Welcome, sir, and Wendy. We're going to give you the floor, so it's all yours.

[Dave Ward, Director, Aboriginal Relations, Homeward Trust Edmonton]

Fantastic. Thank you.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the committee. Thank you for inviting us to speak today on this very important topic.

This morning I would like to talk to you a bit about Homeward Trust, the cost of homelessness, the prevention of homelessness, and make some recommendations to the committee.

Homeward Trust Edmonton is a non-profit community-based organization that provides leadership and resources towards the goal of ending homelessness in Edmonton. Our primary role is to coordinate a response to homelessness in Edmonton by working together with local agencies and all orders of government.

We work to fulfill our mission by providing leadership on housing and strategic and community planning. To date, we have invested in 78 capital projects, totalling 1,700 units, delivering $17 million to support projects and $70 million in capital projects.

Homeward Trust provides leadership in creating the Edmonton Community Plan on Housing and Support Services. It is a comprehensive road map to addressing homelessness and support services in Edmonton. The plan outlines the estimated funding requirements of 3,750 additional housing units: $401.6 million in capital costs, and $567.5 million in operating costs.

The entire community, including private, for-profit and non-profit housing providers, community agencies, and all three orders of government will have to work together to contribute towards making the recommended solutions a reality. Ending homelessness is a complex challenge and there is no single solution. Preventing homelessness requires organized cross-governmental cooperation.

In Alberta there is a dedicated focus and desire to end homelessness. Edmonton's mayor, Stephen Mandel, in February of this year, created Edmonton's 10-year plan to end homelessness and formed the Edmonton Committee to End Homelessness. As well, the Government of Alberta created the Secretariat for Action on Homelessness, which developed its own 10-year provincial plan, a plan for Alberta to end homelessness in 10 years.

Both plans adopted a Housing First model and enthusiastically support the creation of more accessible social housing units. As a result, we here in Edmonton have taken a fundamental shift in addressing homelessness. By adopting the Housing First strategy, we have modernized the way in which homelessness is approached in Edmonton. We believe there should be more opportunity for people at risk of homelessness to avoid it altogether with the creation of more affordable social housing units. For those who do become homeless, there should be more opportunity to find settled homes and support, which is the backbone of the housing first philosophy.

We believe that homelessness has no place in a sustainable community. Regrettably, ending homelessness won't bring an end to poverty among Canadians, but ending poverty will go a long way to ending homelessness in Canada. That is why we support the standing committee's goal of ending poverty in Canada. Eliminating poverty directly addresses the root causes of homelessness.

Those who are homeless have many challenges and issues, including addictions, mental health issues, and trauma, and there is no one story that brought them to homelessness. But what they do all have in common is poverty. It is the thread that runs through every story. Homelessness, like poverty, takes a huge toll on our citizens and our community. They are indeed brothers of a different father. While we can and do successfully address their other issues through assertive support, we have no certainty regarding their future ability to be financially self-sufficient. Similarly, the at-risk population is growing, and for the most they don't have complex and concurrent issues, but their potential exposure to homelessness and the consequences of entering the system of services serving the homeless population have a very detrimental impact mentally and emotionally.

Approximately 3,100 individuals are homeless on any given night in the city of Edmonton, meaning that they are living on the street or in temporary shelter. At a recent Homeless Connect event, we had 1,100 individuals visit the event looking for free service and housing supports.

The moral and social costs of homelessness are apparent and on the streets and in shelters. The financial costs are less so. But chronically homeless citizens consume enormous public resources. One estimate suggests homelessness costs taxpayers $4.5 billion to $6 billion every year for all the 150,000 homeless Canadians.

We know that in Edmonton it costs $100,000 a year to keep an individual homeless. We know that an average Edmontonian spends nine days in hospital per year. The average stay for an individual experiencing homelessness is 66 days. We know that one in five calls to emergency vehicles come from a homeless individual. Homelessness causes a huge strain on both our medical and justice systems. Current research indicates that we are able to house an individual and provide them with all necessary supports for up to one year for under $35,000, a considerable savings. In Edmonton, we know there currently is a 4,000-person waiting list for social housing.

In summary, we look to all three orders of government to provide leadership and set out new approaches to tackle the personal and social causes of homelessness, alongside structural issues like social housing supply. To stress the point again, ending poverty will go a long way in ending homelessness in Canada.

Our first recommendation, then, to the committee is to increase the number of affordable housing units available to Canadians, as is recommended both in the City of Edmonton and the Province of Alberta's 10-year plans to end homelessness. That's strategy number 11 in the plan for Alberta and goals number one and two in this municipal plan.

Our second recommendation focuses on reducing poverty to help prevent homelessness. Through tax deductions and program assistance such as homelessness and eviction prevention funds, this recommendation is supported in the City of Edmonton and province's 10-year plans. That's strategy number 16 for the province and goal number four for the municipal government.

In conclusion, we would like to see the government ensure an adequate supply of permanent, affordable housing options with appropriate supports for these Canadians who are currently homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. We would also ask that the government put poverty and homelessness best practices prevention strategies into immediate action.

That concludes our presentation component.

I'd also like to emphasize something that has generated quite a fundamental shift: not only the adoption of the Housing First philosophy but the inclusion of a population that is highly impacted by this issue. In Edmonton, out of the 3,100 individuals who were counted in the point-in-time count, approximately 40% were of aboriginal descent. In the last three Homeless Connect events that we helped to coordinate, approximately 40% to 50% of that population were of aboriginal descent.

Homeward Trust has developed a very unique governance structure. We have two nominating committees. There's an aboriginal nominating committee and then a non-aboriginal nominating committee. They're populated by our stakeholders. Individuals in the community who are focused on this issue have an opportunity to apply and then go through an interview process. We've gone through our first cycle of populating our board through this mechanism.

As an aboriginal person, a first nation person from northern Alberta, I have gone through and witnessed families and friends struggling with all of these types of issues. In an urban context, having aboriginal people participate at the level of a decision-making role and having that balance with individuals I think is something that's really important and something that I hope the committee can consider for other communities.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

We're going to start with Mr. Lessard. If you need the French translation, you'll need those headsets.

Just quickly about Homeward Trust again, I know you mentioned it in your opening remarks, but do you guys help facilitate people finding places? Do you have a bank of residences that you operate? What exactly...?

[Dave Ward]

We manage the resources for three orders of government, so homeless prevention strategy resources for the federal government and the provincial government. We are the funding body for the agencies that are delivering the services. We fund the capital projects.

In terms of program delivery, we don't do the program delivery. That's the front-line agencies.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

You redirect the money to projects for actual new housing then. So when the provincial government or the city talks about this 10-year plan, your organization will be helping to facilitate the building and delivery of those units.

[Dave Ward]

With the municipal plan, we're currently working on finalizing the MOU with the homeless commission, and that will likely charge us with being the management body for the 10-year plan. It has been adopted by our board and it complements the community plan we have developed over the last five years.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Great. There may be more questions; I just wanted to clarify that for members of Parliament.

We will start with Mr. Lessard, for seven minutes.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank our witnesses for their presentations, this morning. I know that we are going to focus on the issue of housing, in particular.

I am not sure whether the benchmarks are still the same, but when the poverty reduction strategy was implemented in 1989 and later, during the various levels of debate, the vacancy rate used as the benchmark for determining the need for so-called affordable housing was 3%.

In some of the cities we have visited and according to some of the witnesses we have heard from, we are seeing that the number is 2.4%. So close to 3%. Are vacant housing units units that are affordable or units that need renovations? The 2.4% rate is not ideal, but it is still interesting.

[Dave Ward]

Thank you for the question.

In Edmonton we've had the opportunity to connect in terms of the Housing First philosophy. One of the major pillars within that philosophy is the landlord. We've been working quite extensively, building relationships with key landlords and demonstrating the economic returns on participating in a Housing First type of program.

The benefits of that kind of programming, relationship-building, have proven to us that there are some units and issues as far as renovations are concerned, but the opportunity to help homeless individuals to be housed, thus educating the private sector and sharing the story about how this program works...I think we've started to bear some of the fruits of that labour. Any individual who comes through the program has quite an extensive choice about what kinds of units they might want to reside in.

[Wendy Myshak, Manager, Community Initiatives, Homeward Trust Edmonton]

I want to speak a bit about the vacancy rate. Alberta is a bit of an odd dog in Canada because of our boom in the last couple of years. There was a point, in 2008, where our vacancy rate was below 1%. It was very difficult to find an apartment, and if one was available it was very expensive. I think CMHC said a one-bedroom was anywhere from $850 to $1,000 a month. That was generally in the outlying areas, not in the core, where a lot of migrants and other people wish to live. It was very difficult for them to find any sort of housing at all.

I think that speaks directly to poverty and not so much to homelessness, but certainly the vacancy rate did a lot to increase our number of homeless individuals in the last year.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

A previous witness told us about the situation of persons with disabilities. Does your social housing development strategy include measures specifically for people with disabilities so as to favour adaptable housing?

[Wendy Myshak]

Yes, we do fund several projects. A recent one is for a society called the Excel Society, and it was built specifically for people with disabilities. We do address that issue.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

About that, have you set percentage targets? We know that the percentage of people with disabilities is 10%, but not all of them have a physical disability.

As to the percentage of people with a physical disability, do you have any targets in terms of the number of housing units?

[Wendy Myshak]

It hasn't been a priority. This EICHS society is built specifically for people with physical disabilities. It's wheelchair accessible, no stairs, and things of that nature. We do have different units available for people with different types of disabilities. It is something we address.

In our particular population, significant numbers of homeless individuals are elderly senior people and youth. We have been focusing a lot on building units specifically with that group in mind.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

You say that the city of Edmonton, thanks to its mayor, and Alberta have devised a modern strategy. I am not sure whether you meant to use that word or not. When we hear “modern”, we think new measures that are adapted to today's reality.

Could you describe those new measures adapted to today's reality?

[Dave Ward]

For the first time, from what I recall, the Province of Alberta has invested $32 million in support services. That has provided an opportunity for us to support the Housing First philosophy. Out of those resources here in Edmonton we were able to fund nine different teams that are working in the Parkland area and the River Valley, engaging homeless people and getting them into the program.

In terms of modernizing our approach, in the past I think in the approach to homelessness, although the coordinated effort and intention of agencies was to try to provide and ultimately get homeless people into permanent housing, the resources and the staff to actually support that process through to the end and to provide the kind of guidance and linkage to the community haven't been there. In our Housing First philosophy there are three major pillars: the client, the landlord, and the community.

Statistically one of the things we've referenced—and you can use the aboriginal community as an example—is the aboriginal population, in terms of the 40% that are homeless. It's incumbent upon us, our partners in the community, and the aboriginal community to ensure that individuals who come to this program, and programs like it, are given opportunities to socialize and connect to their community and feel that they belong, and feel not that their community is solely at a shelter or in an agency, but that their community is broader than that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Wendy, you can answer that, and then we're going to move on.

[Wendy Myshak]

I want to speak briefly on the modernizing of the philosophy.

Prior to the last, I would say, five years in North America, the idea has always been to take a homeless individual, who may or may not have problems with addiction or mental health, go through transitional housing or some other methods to get them free of their addictions, get them balanced on their medicine, and then try to get them a home.

What we found, and what they found in other cities such as New York and Portland and Toronto, is that in order to get someone balanced and stable, they really need to have a home first. That's why it's called Housing First. The first thing we do is get people into a house, and then we deal with their addictions, their mental health issues, and things like that. It's a complete flip-flop of the old philosophy, which was, “We're not going to help you; we're not going to put you in a house because we don't think you're ready. You have an addiction problem, you have this, you have that. You don't deserve a home.”

We use the term “modernizing”, but we've really flipped it on its head: “We're going to put you in a house.” And it's been very successful. I believe in the city of Toronto in the past three and a half years they have almost an 89% success rate. You probably heard this when you were down east, but 89% of the people that they put in housing and they do support, in a year, are still in their housing situation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

I think Mr. Martin will probably agree. We've heard a lot about the thought that if people don't have housing, it's very hard to combat their addictions, because they have no place to go, no sense of stability, and all those things. So it would seem, from some of the testimony we've been hearing, that it does make more sense to be looking at that kind of model.

Mr. Martin, the floor is yours for seven minutes.

[Tony Martin, NDP, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you.

You've been a breath of fresh air here this morning in terms of some of what we've been hearing across the country. You've identified the real challenge that is out there. Some of what you're doing, the success you're having, and the approach you're taking is very positive I think, and we can certainly all learn from it.

Just the last comment about not necessarily looking at a person and defining them by their addiction or their affliction but looking at them as a human being who first of all needs a place to call home, and then from there we can build on other things, I think that's spectacular. To put in place the support programs that are necessary is really great too.

My first experience of poverty in Alberta was quite a shock. I showed up in Calgary about two years ago in February and found—you said 3,100 here—there were at that time, before the recession, 3,500 to 4,000 sleeping rough in the streets of Calgary. Dean, Mike, and I visited the big shelter there and it was quite an experience, but we saw the effort that was being made to try to get some of those folks in out of the cold, and then get them into some programming and move them on.

But some of what you're doing here in front of that major challenge, I guess, is kind of interesting and unique, not expected. Alberta back then and for quite some time has been the mecca that everybody moved to for the new wealth and the new jobs. I remember travelling home for Christmas in the middle of winter and they had actually closed the highway down, but I was young and foolish and thought I could never get hurt, so I went through anyway. There was another guy on the road just a little bit farther ahead, hitchhiking, and I picked him up. He was heading for Alberta. He thought if he could get there the day after New Year's, that of everybody who had gone home, some wouldn't come back, and there would be jobs.

What I discovered in the shelter in Calgary was a lot of those young people who came to get jobs. Some of them got jobs—not all of them did—but they couldn't find a place to live, as you said, because either it was not there or it was too expensive or whatever. They were sleeping on the same mats on the floors as the addicted folks and the people suffering from mental illness and a whole bunch of other issues. It was quite disturbing that that was how we were dealing with human beings who have inherent value in them and who we need to be respecting and honouring.

It's good to hear as well that the provincial government is spending some money—$30 million, I think you said. Maybe you could talk a bit about the federal role and any expected federal role. What could you tell us that would be helpful in terms of—that's the role of this committee—what the federal role should be in a national anti-poverty strategy? And should there be a national anti-poverty strategy in the first place?

[Wendy Myshak]

Just to speak first to your comment on poverty, as Dave mentioned in our introduction, if you could reduce or eliminate poverty in Canada, you would go a long, long way to ending homelessness.

I don't want to just spew stats, but the number of individuals who we would categorize as chronically homeless is I think anywhere from 15% to 20%. So 20% or 15% of 3,100 is quite a reduction in the number of people who would be on the streets.

In Alberta specifically, a lot of our homeless individuals are working, and it's not a question of their being lazy or addicted or whatever. It's just that they cannot find an affordable place to live. That's very true of young people who have come from the east coast to try to find work. Last year we had 50,000 temporary foreign workers come to the province. We do have a lot of migrants who come also. For that entire population, the ones who do end up on the street, which is a considerable number, do so because of poverty. It is because the wage they're earning is minimum wage, and there's no way they can afford even a one-bedroom or a studio apartment on minimum wage.

So if you could eliminate poverty, you would go a long, long way to making our job of eliminating homelessness a lot easier.

I don't remember your other question.

[Tony Martin, NDP, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

It was about the federal role.

[Wendy Myshak]

Right.

We just had a National Housing Day breakfast last week, hosted by CMHC, and they did speak a little bit about unaffordable housing. That's one place where the federal government could really take a leadership role. As you were saying in a previous session, there's just not affordable housing in Alberta. As we were saying, in Edmonton there are 4,000 people waiting for housing, and that's not including, for the most part, the people who are currently on the street and people who are couch surfing, the “hidden homeless”. If the federal government could provide more units, good units, places where people want to live in neighbourhoods where they want to live, that would go a very long way to helping the problem, at least in Edmonton and Calgary.