Edmonton councillor calls for social housing across 'entire' city

Some may think it's never going to happen.

Ask your average Edmontonian about the city's 10-year-plan to end homelessness, and you'll likely get some eyes rolling or heads shaking.

But the goalhas its share of crusaders andCoun. Andrew Knack is one of them.

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Knack said it's going to take collaboration and consultation.

"We have to go out to communities across the entire city not just in the downtown core, the Stony Plain Road core, in the west end," he said. "We have to go out to all communities and say, 'Listen, this is something we have to work on together,' " he told CBC News.

Knack was responding to a "social forecast" presented to city council this week, showing there were 1,700 homeless people in Edmonton in 2016, with 70 per cent of themconsideredchronically homeless.

He said he believes permanent supportivehousing needs to be built in neighbourhoods acrossthe city and that residents must understand why that is necessary.

That means the perceivedNIMBY effect the "not in my backyard" mentalityhas to go, he said.

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"We're not going to build 500 units [in] one building where we house everyone who is chronically homeless," he argued. "It's likely to be much smaller buildings, 30 to 40 people per space, which means every community is going to need to provide homes."

Council newcomerSarah Hamilton saidsocial housing should be considered on a project-by-project basis.

"Look at each project and make sure that we've done our due diligence as a city," she said. "I think we see better lives for Edmontonians when we have those [affordable housing], but I think we also have to be judicious in how we approve projects."

Social forecast

Rob Smyth, deputy city manager forcitizen services, presented thesocial forecasta first for city administration.

The forecast, based on a survey by the Edmonton Community Foundation, shows nearly 11 per cent of Edmontonians in 2016 were considered low-income earners. One-third of single-parent families lived in poverty.

Smythsaid the social forecast is a guideline for council to make decisions, and is directly connected with the economic outlook.

No policy decisions have been made on where to put new housing, butSmythsaidhis department is working on a plan for council to consider in the second quarter of 2018.

"The whole continuum of housing needsto be looked at," he said.

Money for affordable and permanent supportive housing comes from provincial and federal governments.Thecity's roleis to free up land where social housing can be built, said Knack.

The social forecast also showed the crime severity index has been going up since 2013.

While violent crime, including homicides, sexual assault and robberies, dropped in 2016 from the year before, domestic violenceincreased over the same period.

Hamilton said she and Coun. Bev Esslinger want an update on the rate of domestic violence in Edmonton.

Racism cited as a problem

More than 50 per cent of survey respondents saidracism is a problem in Edmonton. Butover half of respondents said they feel connected to theircommunity a trend that has been increasing since 2013.

The immigrant community has also expanded. Over 30 per cent of people living in Edmonton come from another country.

Edmonton is one of the most linguistically diverse cities in Canada," the forecast said. Tagalog, Punjabi and Arabic are among the fastest growing languages in the city.

The social forecast also saidmore than half ofLGBTQyouth don't feel safe at school.