Edmonton to dismantle 9,500 homeless encampments in 2024

Edmonton police and municipal crews dismantled nearly 9,500 homeless encampments in 2024. Compared to the 6,700 makeshift shelters removed in 2023, this represents an increase of more than 40%.

Please note, however, that the 2024 data concerns the period up to November 30, so they do not cover the entire 12 months of the year.

Site cleaning costs have increased by more than 240% in 1 year: while the City spent $1.7 million to clean 2,400 sites in 2023, it had to pay $5.8 million in 2024 to clean approximately 5300 campsites.

The City specifies in this regard that cleaning is not necessary after certain dismantling.

For more funding

The Alberta government provided a one-time grant of $4.5 million to help clean up the camps in 2024, according to the city’s website.

Marta-Marika Urbanik, professor of criminology and sociology at the University of Alberta, studied the homeless situation in 12 Canadian cities.

According to her, it is not enough to eliminate the camps or let them proliferate.

We must find ways to provide alternative housing and support solutions for our homelessshe suggested in an interview.

More investment is needed in supportive housing to ensure these needs are met.

Without meaningful funding, there will not be massive, meaningful improvements in the lives of those in our communities who are unhoused.

And a change of approach

The city and the police have started to accelerate the closure of the camps at the end of 2023.

This approach has been called inhumane by human rights advocates, particularly when crews force homeless people to leave their makeshift encampments in very cold weather.

Pour Jim Gurnettspokesperson for the Edmonton Coalition for Housing and Homelessness, this was an attack on the most vulnerable.

The ridiculous thing is we know it doesn’t work, because last year we saw the biggest increase in homelessness that I’ve seen in 25 years of being on the ground.

In early 2024, the Alberta government opened a homeless orientation and support center on Highway 107^e Street, downtown.

In the same year, the center helped approximately 4,900 people access life-changing services, according to the province.

Jason NixonMinister of Seniors, Communities and Social Services, is convinced that the center makes the difference, because people are connected with the appropriate services to care for themhe said Thursday, during an interview on the radio show Edmonton AMof CBC.

The camps are dangerous. If we want to care for the homeless, it is ridiculous to have them sleep in freezing tents with artificial heating sources made from propane and other dangerous sources.

The number of homeless people in Edmonton, recorded by the organization Homeward Truststood at 4963 in December.

This figure includes people in shelters, those without shelter and those with temporary housing.

With information from Natasha Riebe