Edmonton plans to convert four hotels into new supportive housing units

Four Edmonton hotels will be converted by the cityinto supportive housing units in the coming months, with the help of afederal governmentinitiative.

City council agreed at a meeting Monday to go ahead with a plan to spend$15 million to create 360 units. The city's contribution will supplement $50 million coming from thefederal Rapid Housing Initiative.

Mayor Don Iveson said the units will help alleviate the situation for some who are experiencinghomelessness.

"This is another step in the right direction," Iveson said. "If we were to scale these up quickly, we would be able to end chronic homelessness, I still firmly believe that."

Rapid Housing Initiative projects must be completed and opened within one year, according to a report prepared by city staff.

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Christel Kjenner, the city'sdirector of affordable housing and homelessness, said the federal program has two parts: a city stream and a project stream.

Funding under the city stream will go toward converting two hotels for a total of about 138 units.

An application for funding under the project stream will be used for another two hotels, about 222 units.

The name of the hotels are not being made public until the deals are sealed, she said.

With council's green light,plans to design the hotel conversions can begin, and an updated plan will be submitted to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which is managing the federal program.

The city expects to hear a decision on the project stream application by next March.

Pandemic pressures

Since the beginning of the pandemic, another 1,000 people have become homeless, Kjenner said.

That means there are currently about 2,600 people who are deemed homeless in Edmonton.

"The pandemic has had a very significant impact on the number of people experiencing homelessness in our city," she said Monday.

Kjenner expects the city will see an increase in the demand for supportivehousing.

"I think it's fair to say we've suffered some setbacks with respect to our overall progress towards ending homelessness," she said,"but with programs like Rapid Housing Initiative, there is hope that that setback will be temporary."

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The Rapid Housing Initiative doesn't include operating money to run the housing projects. That needs to come from the provincial government.

In July, Iveson sent a letter to Rajan Sawhney, Alberta's then-minister of community and social services, urging the province to contribute funds to the housing initiativedespite tough economic times.

"By taking this initiative together, we will be able to address these long-standing issues, as well as reduce overall costs to the province in the areas of health, justice, law enforcement and more," Iveson wrote.

Jason Luan, the current minister of that portfolio,said his department was meeting with municipal staff and Homeward Trust Edmonton to consider funding and partnerships in preparation for some of the units.

The city is already building 210 units of permanent supportive housing at five sites, using previously approved funding from the federal government.

The hotel conversions would be owned and operated by non-market housing providers, with the city in a supporting role.