The City of Calgary’s goal to end homelessness in 10 years seems further away than ever before, as new data, released on Tuesday, shows.
The new numbers were released during a meeting of local agencies and officials at the Red and White Club at McMahon Stadium on Tuesday.
In 2008, the city vowed to end homelessness in ten years, the first Canadian city to make such an ambitious declaration.
At that time, the Calgary Homeless Foundation saw that the amount of homeless in the City of Calgary was growing by 35 percent and something had to be done.
Officials say that if nothing was done, then we could be looking at 9,000 people out on the streets instead of the 3,500 it is now.
Since that time, over 6,000 people have been helped with housing support through the dozens of agencies in Calgary that are assigned to help the homeless.
However, the new numbers show that the number of homeless in the city has plateaued, which is good because the problem isn’t getting any worse but it’s not getting any better either.
Seven years in, the Calgary Homeless Foundation says the end is in sight, but it’s going to be a hard home stretch.
“This is the push and this is the focus now. You might get bored with this but the fact is that these are people that need a home, that need a rental home. We can do this, but we need everyone to do their part,” says Diana Krecsy, CEO of the CHF.
Calgary-Centre MP Joan Crockatt was also in attendance at the meeting, saying that ending homelessness doesn’t exactly mean having absolutely no people on the streets.
She says people will always be coming into the system, so it’s more important to have it functional.
The CHF says they’re still $290M short on funding, so that is another obstacle that will have to be overcome to reach their goal in 2018.
