Alberta and Edmonton at odds over data on homeless navigation centre

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The provincial and municipal governments are at odds over data and access to information about Alberta’s navigation centre and types of shelter spaces available for homeless people in Edmonton.

City council this week looked at how the municipality is responding to homelessness and encampments this winter. Council heard a presentation from senior administrative officials including some information on the navigation centre, but some expressed they are not satisfied the city is getting enough data to inform its homelessness policies. The navigation centre opened mid-January, the same day city police announced they would move quickly to remove all encampments.

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As well, council heard the municipality’s approach to encampments, and its extreme weather winter response more generally, will stay mostly unchanged from last year.

No information on how many people who went to the navigation centre were housed or completed drug treatment was provided during the city’s presentation. Councillors also wanted to know if there are enough shelter spaces for different types of people and needs — such as youth and children — but the city also did not have that data.

Ward Karhiio Coun. Keren Tang said questions around navigation-centre data come up often but to date council hasn’t received a straight answer from the province. Some of her constituents tell her the centre is working, and others think it isn’t.

“I have absolutely no idea what is the truth,” she said during the meeting Thursday, adding she wants to see information the public hasn’t had access to. “Overall I think it will help with public transparency on this really complex challenge that, even if it is not our primary responsibility, it is probably the No. 1 issue we get asked all the time.”

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Council passed a motion that will have the mayor write a letter to the provincial government. The letter will ask for data on how many people who visited the navigation centre have been housed and remained housed for six to 12 months, who entered and completed drug treatment, the rate people are hospitalized and access health care, and if the centre changes protocols in the winter. It asks for details on the province’s plan to have recovery beds and 24/7 supportive housing units.

Information on the current capacity in shelters was publicly available until mid-January on Homeward Trust’s website when the province told that organization to remove it. The Alberta government publishes overall shelter utilization numbers that do not break use down by location or type. The data hasn’t been updated for more than two months.

Don’t share our old data: province

Postmedia asked the province how many people who went to the navigation centre have been housed since it opened in January, pointing to the city’s presentation.

Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon’s office did not answer the question.

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Instead, his office shot back at the city for presenting old data from the navigation centre.

“The City of Edmonton does not have any updated statistics in regard to the provincial Navigation and Support Centre in Edmonton. Any data presented by city administration in regard to the centre would not be accurate or up to date and the City should not be presenting incorrect data to the public,” wrote Alysha Wishloff, spokeswoman for Nixon’s office.

“The Navigation and Support Centre is a provincial facility, and its statistics are kept by the Provincial government, not the city.”

Information city staff presented came from a public July 2 news release from the provincial government.

Wishloff said more than 3,745 individuals have accessed the navigation centre since it opened and more than 1,980 people were connected to either housing or shelters. However, she said many people who go there are already housed and are looking for other help including health, mental health, support around addictions, finances and ID.

“The Navigation Centre has been very successful, is widely supported by our non-profit partners, and Alberta’s government remains fully committed to the centre and the model which we have expanded to Calgary, and will be expanding across the province,” she stated.

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“Albertans know that tents are not appropriate or safe housing, particularly during cold, winter weather. Encampments also create disorder for others in the community. Alberta will continue to take action to provide appropriate safe housing and shelter for our must vulnerable people.”

‘Unintended consequences’: tent removal strategy scrutinized

Council members also didn’t think they had enough information about the city’s procedures for removing homeless encampments.

Ward Anirniq Coun. Erin Rutherford was concerned the city could be making decisions around encampments in a vacuum without important information from the province, potentially creating more problems.

“I’m seeing a lot of challenges we’re creating with our own policy, and I’m not saying we keep encampments — I have been very clear there is a safety issue there,” she said.

“I also worry about the unintended consequences of our policy. What have we learned, what are we changing, and if we are lacking information that is informing our policy decisions, how are we getting that, because that is very concerning to me.”

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Jennifer Flaman, deputy city manager for community services, told council the city stopped using a previous “risk matrix” in how it prioritizes which camps to remove but still assesses sites based on risk. How this differs from the old process wasn’t immediately clear.

Flaman said camps near schools and playgrounds are prioritized. Later, she said the focus is on the risk of injury or death.

City workers find people flaring propane tanks inside tents, in different stages of drug use and who are not able to make safe decisions, she said.

“The imminent harm is what creates that urgency I have to get people into shelter,” she told council. “If I have to choose between having someone languish outside in the cold or having someone be safe and warm in a shelter, I will choose the latter.”

Council passed a motion asking for a memo and to make information public about the process the city uses to remove camps, what risks they consider, and how they determine if there’s enough shelter space.

There is also direction to get feedback from social agencies and people who have experience living in encampments about the risks of removing them during cold weather. Council expects staff to use this feedback to inform potential changes to the encampment response.

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The city has done similar research before. In Feburary 2023, council looked at a report that interviewed people with “lived experience” of being homeless outdoors.

Rutherford pointed to that prior research during the meeting, saying “every time we tear down encampments there’s negative health outcomes.”

Some are losing limbs to frostbite, she said. Flaman said she doesn’t think they can make that correlation between camp removals and frostbitten limbs.

Rutherford interrupted: “If we don’t know what’s causing it, why are we doubling down on the policy we have?”

Ward O-day’min Coun. Anne Stevenson, who put forward the motion, told Postmedia she has questions about the right course of action when temperatures are extremely cold. She wants municipal leadership to speak with people who have lived in camps to get feedback.

“I hear two very strong perspectives on that. Some feel that, regardless of the weather, what’s essential is getting them out of encampments which are unsafe and undignified. That’s absolutely true. At the same time, I worry about further marginalizing individuals who are not able to attend shelter. By removing their encampment do we further put them at further risk?” she said Thursday.

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“I don’t know the answer, this is why I want to talk to people with lived experience, those who work with those with lived experience, to come to an approach that better meets the needs of those living in encampments while also recognizing that they do pose unacceptable risks to our whole community.”

Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, asked why the city is continuing with the status quo, said encampments are not safe and neither camps or shelters are the solution: it’s housing.

“They become dangerous places because there are fire hazards, there are biohazards, there are needles. People are living in terrible, terrible, deportable situations. We try to make the best of the situations, but in order to fix this problem, we need to build more homes,” he said.

“Building more homes is the solution. Building more facilities that are dignified spaces, that is the solution. And we will continue to work with the provincial and federal partners for them to step up.”

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@laurby

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