I think supportive housing is a better approach. It involves building/converting multi-unit buildings with a few dozen units, and dedicated supports for addictions and mental health, finding jobs/getting ID, etc. Homeward Trust assigns them a case worker who helps them find treatments, get ID and a job, etc. They sign a lease, pay (subsidized) rent, etc. This model eases the transition for the clients because that unit is their own personal home while they're there, and they remain actual members of society. Their agency isn't ripped away from them; that would make relapse much more likely after treatment since being on their own again could be so darn overwhelming.
And it's a housing first model, meaning they don't need to try and "get clean" from drugs or alcohol before they're even considered for housing. The idea behind that is it is much easier to focus on addressing harmful coping mechanisms if one is not constantly worried about finding a roof over their head for the night, or always switched on fight or flight mode; people who received treatment under this plan have vouched for this.
And according to the city,
this model works. There are
only 226 units of supportive housing so far, with a few more buildings currently under construction, which will bring our total count to ~900. More than 14,000 people have used Edmonton's housing first program, and similar programs since 2009 (I presume those related programs don't use this pool of 226 units). Of those 14,370 people, the city says that more than 80% remained housed after 12 months. What the city does need is more money for Homeward Trust to build and operate more of these units. Regarding those new units under construction,
the province has not given them the money for these units to be operated. Homeward Trust has said that these units are far too vital to languish, so if the province does not step up then Homeward Trust will be forced to cut other important programs to make up the difference.
Carting houseless people to some far away institution will do more harm than good. It strips them of their agency and dehumanizes them; sentiments they already feel too much of as houseless people. They are forced to either stay in a treatment centre against their will, or find their way back to Edmonton on their own (and for the Indigenous Peoples who make up more than half of our houseless population, this would come disgustingly close to
the Starlight Tours where as late as 2018, cops in Saskatchewan drove Indigenous men women and children out to rural areas in the dead of winter nights, and left them to freeze to death).
While in "treatment", they would be isolated from their friends, family, the supports they might have grown to know and trust, and everything else that helped make life survivable for them. And once they were out again, there would be no guarantee of who or what they could find again. All of this would make treatment hard enough on its own, let alone the fact that they would have no experience renting their own place, applying for jobs, getting IDs, etc. Even if they could learn about this stuff in classes, it's different to live the experiences.
Lastly,
you have
no right whatsoever to say that they don't belong in Edmonton. These are living, breathing, feeling, and thinking human beings. They are people too; some were born and raised Edmontonians who fell on hard times, while others came here for the social services and shelters. Whatever their reasons, they deserve to be treated like people. Many of us on this website could ourselves be one or two missed paycheques away from losing our homes, never forget that. And considering more than half of our houseless population are Indigenous, it's very ironic to tell them that they have no right to be here, considering that's a line they and their Peoples have been told since this land was first occupied by settlers. Even if they don't have a
house, Amiskwaciy is their
home.
Instead of dehumanizing them, ruining many of their lives, and destroying our greatest chance at reintegrating them - all for nothing but the sake of putting them out of sight and out of mind, let's stick with a model that has already been proven to work, and has been used successfully in Edmonton for over a decade. If 226 units can have such an impact, imagine what impact 900 will have. Or 1800. Let's not declare our model of supportive housing first inadequate simply because it was underfunded even before our houseless population doubled during Covid. And let's not lose our humanity and commit shameful acts that would forever stain our legacies and our city, simply because we wanted to choose the easy option instead of the right solution. One man's "degeneration" is another's living hell.