Edmonton social agencies, police set up new hub to help homeless

Social agencies, the police, health and city workers will operate under one roof to help bolster efforts to help homeless people in Edmonton.

The agencies moved into a collective space at the Union Building in the Central McDougall neighbourhood Wednesday.

The groups held a news conference Wednesday to discuss the program called HELPHuman-centred Engagement and Liaison Partnership.

Edmonton police Chief Dale McFee said the coordinated response is meant to address the myriad of issues facing vulnerable people.

"This is a true partnership," McFee told media. "You're sharing experiences, you're sharing expertise."

The joint initiative aims to break down barriers and get to the root causes of homelessness, assessing mental health challenges, addictions and intergenerational trauma.

"You have data sets in the same building, you actually have a better understanding you're trying not to fix a sliver of the individual."

Homelessness climbs in COVID-19

Thehub for theHELP initiative opensasagencies have facedunprecedented challenges through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Susan McGee, CEO of Homeward Trust, said despiteintense efforts to house and help people over the past 16 months, the number of people who identify as homeless has increased by about 1,000.

"As of yesterday, we had 2,517 people on our by-name list.Pre-pandemic, our counts were more like 1,400 to1,500," McGee told the news conference.

A by-name list includes anyone who hasasked for assistance with housing. Homeward Trust said Edmonton has 60 access points where individuals and families can be screened and put on the list.

Access points include housing providers, outreach teams, shelters andpartners such as Alberta Health Services and libraries.

"We have to go into this period, this kind of 2.0 of ending homelessness in our community, really creatively, relentlessly."

Jordan Reiniger, executive director ofBoyle Street Community Services, said the pandemic altered the resources people used to access.

"If you think about all of the things that people used to survive on the street, a lot of those places closed or significantly curtailed their capacity," Reiniger said.

Libraries, for example, wereclosed, and City Hall is still closed to the public.

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The agencies, the city and the province responded by opening the emergency shelter at the Expo centre, and thenTipinawaw at the Edmonton Convention Centre, which closed earlier in the spring.

South-side shelters were also opened to ensure physicaldistancing.

Reiniger said substance dependence and mental health issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic, and trauma is resurfacing from mass graves found at Indigenous residential schools.

"The events of the world that are affecting all of us affect our community members, in many cases in more significant ways," Reiniger said.

McGee said collaboration is key to reaching those who need it.

"Coordinated access is just a really critical part of our efforts to end homelessness in terms of intake and having multiple ways of connecting people to the resources and community."

HELP includes navigators people who go out and connect with people to find out what they need and provide direction.

"We cannot solve this problem if we don't really identify individuals and we know them and we know what their support needs are," McGee said.

HELP was officially launched in January, and within itsfirst six months has connected about 280 people to appropriate supports, police said.

Agenciesinvolved in HELP include Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society, George Spady Society, Mustard Seed Society, REACH Edmonton, Bissell Centre Edmonton, Boyle McCauley Health Services, E4C andthe City of Edmonton.

The Katz Group Real Estate is donating the space for a five-year lease.