Edmonton housing coalition hosts wintry rally for more social housing

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The Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH) held a rally Saturday while the snow fell and the temperature dropped, with a goal of spurring action to develop more social housing to help more than 4,000 people experiencing homelessness in the city.

“We’re all dressed nice and warm, of course, but the people who we’re here for are not, and they don’t have the luxury of going home afterwards,” said ECOHH chairwoman Nadine Chalifoux at the beginning of the event.

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A crowd of more than 50 people were bundled up in tarps and blankets at the North Plaza of the Legislature Grounds — experiencing a just fraction of what thousands experiencing homelessness endure throughout the winter. ECOHH’s rally was just one among 15 other cities across Canada to recognize of National Housing Day, aiming to raise awareness and to encourage action from municipal, provincial, and federal governments to invest in social housing for vulnerable Canadians.

Attendees of the rally were given postcards addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created by Social Housing & Human Rights Canada, calling on the federal government to create a “minimum of 50,000 net new rent-geared-to-income social housing units each year for 10 years, starting now.”

ECOHH’s rally comes on the heels of a deadly two-weeks for Edmonton which saw four people found dead in bus shelters across the city as the weather has gotten colder and the snow began to fall. The four people were believed to be homeless, which president of transit union ATU Local 569, Steve Bradshaw, believed was weather related.

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“They are coming out of their encampments and back onto the system, it’s a seasonal shift,” said Bradshaw to Postmedia.

Safety response

In response to the changing weather, the City of Edmonton activated its winter safety response plan to support Edmonton’s thousands of people experiencing homelessness. The initiative rolls out a variety of resources, including a free nightly shelter shuttle bus (which the city just added one more of for the winter), wound care pop ups, and warm public spaces, among others.

Edmonton’s Hope Mission hit a new milestone since the change in the weather, providing shelter for more than 1,000 people for the first time ever. The organization said the demand for shelter was met with similarly increased demand for hot meals.

Tim Pasma, director of programs and homelessness with Hope Mission, thanked the Alberta government for its financial support.

“We are so grateful that the province has helped us to open these additional shelter spaces. They have helped enable us to meet this growing need,” said Pasma in a release.

For its part, the Alberta government said it increased funding for shelters in Edmonton to more than $42 million, bringing the total provincial budget for homelessness in 2024-25 to nearly $210 million.

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But funding for shelters wasn’t enough for the chanters at Saturday’s rally, which made clear by their collective voices echoing off of the surrounding provincial buildings in the quiet, cold, afternoon.

“Build houses — not shelters,” the crowd shouted during a call-and-response segment of the rally.

“I think this is honestly an appropriate day to be doing this and thinking about us being here together in solidarity with over 4000 people that are also outside today and unhoused or homeless,” said University of Alberta researcher Rylan Kamara to the bundled-up crowd in the plaza.

“With those kind of numbers, it just shows how market approaches to this housing crisis, they don’t work, and they haven’t for a long time.”

The crowd listened to several speakers and performers, including drumming from members the Enoch Cree Nation, and a performance by Martin Kerr of his song “God Rest Ye Merry Billionaires,” which was released last year.

Juno award-winning songwriter Maria Dunn also performed a song specifically about the unfolding homelessness crisis, calling on Canadians to put the same effort into helping support the homeless as is put into hockey.

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“I think about how much our society values and seems to assemble lots of resources and money to celebrate hockey, which is wonderful to celebrate with joy, but why can’t we do that for people who are out on the street?” asked Dunn prior to beginning the song.

“No matter what’s happened to you, no matter what you’re going through, you deserve a decent place to live. Without housing first, where does healing begin?” sang Dunn, as the crowd joined in for the final chorus.

“Bring them home. Bring them home. Leave it all on the ice. We need everyone bring them home.”

With files from Lauren Boothby.

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