Provincial Accountability on Homelessness: The Burden on Business

Issue

Municipalities are ill-equipped to address the community level impacts of homelessness, and direct funding is only provided to a few municipalities that qualify for supports. This in turn impacts municipal taxation leading to increased tax burden on those businesses that remain. 

Background

The Government of Alberta announced significant new funding to reduce homelessness and expand Alberta's response to addictions on October 1, 2022. This plan concentrates its focus on priority communities like Edmonton, Wetaskiwin, and Lethbridge. As homelessness is not exclusive to the aforementioned municipalities, supports are a necessity for all communities regardless of size, and are best administrated by those individual municipalities. 

Our Recommendations

1. Develop and execute a comprehensive Provincial action plan and respond to homelessness across Alberta ensuring that municipalities of all sizes are considered. 
2. Create realistic and sustainable funding models for homeless assistance services. 
3. Increase the overall funding for municipalities, allowing them to create and manage a sustainable solution-based response based on the distinct and individual needs of each municipality. 
4. For communities that have no community support organizations within a municipality, provide a funding structure whereby a municipality could access additional funds for programs that proactively address homelessness.