Advocates cry foul as Alberta replaces funding model for anti-homelessness agencies

EDMONTON — A former president of the Calgary Homeless Foundation says he is deeply concerned by the Alberta government’s recent decision to overhaul the funding scheme for organizations providing services to homeless people.

Tim Richter, who served as the foundation’s president from 2008 to 2012 and who now leads the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, a national charity, says the change is dangerous and will lead to more people falling through the cracks.

Under the current model, the foundation and six other non-profit and other organizations act as local hubs and receive a lump sum of government money, which they distribute to smaller organizations in their area.

But provincial Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon announced Friday that the government plans to ditch that model, and distribute the funding itself through existing government grants.

Richter says under the current model, hub organizations like the foundation and Edmonton’s Homeward Trust ensure that smaller organizations within the same city work together to ensure needed services are available, and gaps are filled.

He worries that under the new model, that unity and communication will be lost.

“This turns back the clock on the homelessness response in Alberta 15 years,” he said.

“It is a terribly dangerous move that will cost more, hurt people in the long run, and leave homelessness to explode across the province.”

However, Nixon said Friday that the agencies receiving funding to dole out are essentially acting as middlemen, and it will be more efficient to eliminate that step.

He also said the new process would improve “accountability and oversight” of the programs and services made available through the funding, and gave a couple of examples of funds being used in ways that didn’t align with the government’s goals.

“We’ve seen evidence in the past of organizations distributing tents out into the community,” he said. “That would be a great example of where our government is focused on shelter and housing, not on providing encampments.”

In an interview late Friday Nixon dismissed Richter’s concerns.

“(Funding) will continue to be based on community need, and continue to go to frontline services associated in those communities,” he said.

He also said the government provides a combined $101.5 million annually to the seven hub organizations and the new model is anticipated to increase the funding available.

But Richter said the province will lose the local oversight and flexibility that the hub organizations provide.

“Homelessness is local, and you need local leadership and local focus and local decision-making,” Richter said. “Who will be more efficient and more effective in coordinating a local response, people on the ground or somebody in a government office in Edmonton?”

“What this announcement signals is that the government of Alberta does not want to solve homelessness, because solving homelessness requires building coordinated systems focused on ending it.”

In an email Friday Homeward Trust said it wasn’t able to comment on the change.

Kaely Cormack, a spokesperson for the Calgary Homeless Foundation, said the agency was only notified of the change Friday and is waiting for more details from the government.

Janis Irwin, the Opposition NDP housing critic, is also critical of the government’s overhaul and says the move raises questions about which anti-homelessness organizations will receive funding going forward.

Irwin said that given the UCP government’s staunch opposition to harm reduction services and total focus on addiction recovery, she thinks organizations like Boyle Street Community Services in her Edmonton riding could be at risk for losing funding.

“I think it’s fair to think that they’ll be in jeopardy under this plan,” Irwin said, adding that she’s also concerned the province will lose data the hub organizations provide on homelessness in the province.

“They’re going to be taking away the support for these organizations that provide the data that they should be using to make evidence-based decisions and they’re really going to be putting a whole lot of more unhoused folks at risk.”

Nixon also announced Friday that a panel was being established to advise the government’s approach to homelessness, with a specific focus on homelessness in rural areas.

The panel will also be tasked with engaging service providers on the new funding process over the next few months.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 21, 2024.

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press