Statistics released on November 22, the national Housing Day of Action, show that the number of homeless people in Edmonton has increased dramatically over the past two years.

The detailed count of homeless persons in Edmonton found 1915 people without a home, compared to the 1160 people who were counted two years ago. Of these, 1213 were considered absolute homeless with no housing alternative, while 702 were living in emergency accommodations.

"The results of the October count of homeless people in Edmonton should make any caring person absolutely sick," says Sundari Devam, president of the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH). "Homelessness is the most desperate evidence of what happens when governments walk away from their obligation to ensure everyone has adequate shelter."

The count included 267 children under the age of 15 and showed that among homeless families, 70 percent were absolute homeless.

"People are living and dying in the outdoors. More than 250 children lack the dignity of a place to call home. It is far past time for governments to quit leaving people vulnerable in such a fundamental way" says Jim Gurnett of ECOHH.

ECOHH is calling on the Alberta government to match money committed to low-income affordable housing committed by the Federal government. The agreement between the two governments was signed in June, but the Klein government has not indicated it will put any new dollars into the agreement.

"Only when we build housing for those who cannot afford current high rents will we be able to take some pressure off the emergency shelters, and only then will the absolutely homeless people in our city have a chance to find a place to sleep," says Devam.

Vacancy rates in Edmonton are less than 1% and rents have increased by about 10% in the past year and a recently updated community plan for homelessness suggests that a minimum of 5000 additional units of affordable housing units are needed.

ECOHH is also supporting a national call for the federal and provincial governments to commit one percent of budgets to social housing to address the crisis. Funding for social housing in Alberta was cut in 1993, with provincial funding falling by more than $200 million since then.

The homelessness count was prepared by the Edmonton Homelessness Count Committee, a joint initiative of the City of Edmonton, the Government of Alberta, the Government of Canada and members from the community at large.