Housing and Homeless Initiatives Supervisor Katherine Schmidt speaking at Teresa Sargent Hall on Friday (Photo: Shaun Penner)

By Shaun Penner

Homelessness

City provides report on ending homelessness in Grande Prairie

Jul 5, 2019 | 2:53 PM

The City of Grande Prairie unveiled its report on year four of its five-year plan towards ending homelessness today at Teresa Sargent Hall. Representatives from the City, community organizations, and people with lived experiences were on hand to get caught up on the state of homelessness in the Swan City.

One of the speakers was Housing and Homeless Initiatives Supervisor for the City Katherine Schmidt. She spoke on some of the successes and areas of weakness within the plan, as well as laid out some goals for the next year.

One of those goals was to have a second supportive housing unit in place by next year, like what is offered for the residents of the Parkside Inn. In the process of doing that, more than just getting a building put up is needed to make that happen.

“We’re learning lots from the Parkside and other buildings across the province,” said Schmidt. “It’s key on having enough staffing. It’s also key in having Alberta Health Services, addiction and mental health supports and not just assume that a support worker is going to walk into a building with complex needs and be able to do all of that.”

Those services are vital to keep with the City’s goal of graduating people from homelessness to independence. One of the statistics given from last year shows that 19 people graduated the Housing First program last year, meaning they had secured housing, income, and the ability to house themselves independently.

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That number though, is only about half of the 37 that graduated in year three and the 42 that graduated in year two.

The programs retention rate also saw a drop from previous years, as 82% of participants remained active in the program in year four, which has decreased every year since the program’s first year.

That could explain why the Rotary House saw a spike in need last year. Between the opioid crisis, other shelters being re-purposed or shut down, and many other factors, Rotary House was forced to implement a maximum capacity of just 37 people per night earlier this year.

With that, Schmidt said during her speech that the City would have at least a second overnight intox. mat program by winter. Though a site will be secured by then, she notes the City won’t open the doors to that facility right away.

“We’re going to say, ‘Let’s roll out a really good, solid plan, track the numbers every single day over the winter and as soon as those numbers start getting up close to capacity, then we activate a second site’,” said Schmidt. “So, it’s going to be a different way of looking at it, where we don’t have to predetermine, put in a whole bunch of money and have two mat programs. But what we will do is be prepared and have it so that it is actionable, immediately.”

Where that second site for either the supportive housing or mat program would be located will more than likely be met with dissent from the surrounding neighbourhood. Schmidt notes that though most might feel that having a housing facility in their neighbourhoods leads to a spike in crime, it typically goes the other way.

“And I think our statistics from last year show that if you’re seeing a lot of crime in your neighbourhood that often times having people in a housing facility, that the amount of police interventions actually decreases. Sometimes, EMS responses can go down, because they are being connected to actual services and supports on-site.”

Those numbers Schmidt refers to state that after a program user has been in the program for six-months, there is a decrease of:

• 73% in use of EMS
• 77% in visits to the ER
• 92% in interactions with Police

No site has been chosen by the City for either facility at this time.

In total, a Point-in-Time count in 2018 showed that 228 people were counted as experiencing homelessness in a single night, while 126 people joined the Housing First program in year four, up from the 94 who joined in year three.

The City’s full report on ending homelessness can be found here.