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On October 21st, I volunteered for the 2008 Edmonton Homeless Count. As Homeless Count volunteers, our job was to approach everybody we saw, and ask them if they had a place to go home to...
As a volunteer, I set out from the Homeward Trust offices in Edmonton’s downtown northeast with another volunteer and her young son. Armed with clipboards, reflective vests, and volunteer badges, we set out to walk our beat, an approximately 15-block route near the library, the City Centre Mall, Churchill Square and City Hall.
As Homeless Count volunteers, our job was to approach everybody we saw, and ask them if they had a place to go home to. The first question that we were to ask was “Have you been asked about your housing situation today?”, and after that, “Do you have a permanent residence to go home to tonight?” In less than two hours, we had spoken to more than 15 people who had nowhere to live – a number which I wasn’t expecting. And even more startling, a large proportion of these were teens!
It was a cold and windy day, and it didn’t take long before my counterpart and I were looking for a place to warm up for a few minutes before continuing with the count. On a cold day, it’s hard to stay outside for very long – never mind living outside, which many people have to do.
Not surprisingly, a lot of the people that we approached were ‘too busy’ to stop and answer our questions. Many of them seemed flustered when we asked if they had a home – it seemed like some people were even offended to be asked the question. Perhaps they thought that they didn’t ‘look’ homeless.
Which brings me to my next reflection – on setting out to do the count, I thought about how homelessness has many faces; I prepared for any kind of response, from anybody. Yet I couldn’t help but be shocked by the responses of some of those who didn’t have a home. For me, this revealed how deeply ingrained perceptions about the face of homelessness are.
In an ideal Edmonton, I would be shocked to hear ANYbody say that they didn’t have a home – homelessness wouldn’t just be an unfortunate part of life, it would be eliminated. Hopefully, the statistics from the 2008 Edmonton Homeless Count will help to work towards this future.
Thanks, Homeward Trust, for organizing this important initiative. I’m glad I took part.
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Thursday, 17 May 2012 
The ESPC is a member of the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH). ECOHH sent out a three question survey related to housing security to each political party competing in the 2012 Alberta election. So far, the Progressive Conservatives (PC), the New Democratic Party (NDP), and the Alberta Party responded to ECOHH's questions. Below are their respective answers.
