by Sally Turner, Canadian Social Housing Observer
February 11, 2010

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This years Provincial budget for Alberta promises to increase homelessness, worry some critics. The Province appears to have slashed funding for housing and homelessness issues in an attempt to create a more 'sustainable' budget, after running sizable deficits for the past few years. This comes in the midst of a ten-year plan to eliminate homelessness in Alberta, a goal that critics now worry is unattainable. According to the Alberta Secretariat for Action on Homelessness, more than $3.3 billion is needed to end provincial homelessness in a decade, but the new budget has earmarked just $440 million over the next four years. Moreover, rent supplement programs have fallen from $144 million last year, to $88 million this year, and further reduced to $75 million in 2011. Nearly 80,000 Albertans are given monthly rental supports, in a province where the cost of living has recently soared and income stagnated.

John Kolkman, research co-ordinator with the Edmonton Social Planning Council stressed that the budget cuts would likely impact low-income families across the province.

“If people can’t afford their rent, we risk creating more homeless people in this province and in this city,” he said.

Moreover, the budget steers Alberta away from attaining its goal of eliminating homelessness in ten years. While the Provincial Conservatives stress that budget cuts are made possible by the recovering job market across Alberta, they appear to miss the fact that without a home, Albertans are largely unable to take advantage of any new employment opportunities that come their way. Housing first, then the rest will follow.

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