City gets housing grant funding from feds, province

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on March 12, 2025.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Al Beeber

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

Lethbridge is among four Alberta cities that will benefit from a new federal-provincial partnership aimed at supporting the homeless population.

Randy Boissonault, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre, and Jason Nixon, Alberta Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, announced Tuesday in Edmonton that $35 million in funding from the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative will go to Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and Lethbridge over two years.

The funding will provide immediate support for those cities, said Nixon.

“Projects that will benefit from this additional funding have been selected and our government is finalizing grant agreements with our partners,” Nixon said.

“This money will support projects aimed at creating long-term transitional shelter solutions, enhancing capacity in the shelter system and improving support for existing outreach to system navigation initiatives that connect people to services,” he added.

More details on projects will be available when grant agreements are in place, the minister added.

The money is being welcomed by Lethbridge Housing Authority.

“Lethbridge Housing sincerely appreciates the Government of Alberta for its investment in encampment funding to support vulnerable Albertans,” said CAO Robin James. “This crucial funding will help provide safer housing options and essential services for those experiencing homelessness.”

Every person in the country has a right to safe housing regardless of circumstances, said Boissonault, with homelessness being the federal government’s top priority.

He said addressing homelessness is a shared responsibility between federal and provincial governments and eliminating chronic homelessness will take a co-ordinated effort.

The money will support the community encampment response plans in the four largest Alberta cities.

“It’s going to provide initial support to people in need and living without homes,” said Boissonault.

The agreement “is to help people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in specific municipal regions in our province, particularly those living in encampments. It’s going to promote shelter safety, it’s going to support accessibility and capacity building, transitional housing and supports for people experiencing homelessness,” he said. Funding will also increase access to navigation hub services, he added.

In its 2024 budget, the federal government put in $250 million to be cost-matched by the provinces and territories. The money is also part of a nine-year, $5-billion plan to address homelessness in the country.

The Reaching Home program, which was launched in April of 2019, is an important project for Alberta, said the MP, noting that nearly $600 million will be invested until 2028 in Alberta through it to help people get into a home.

“We support the needs of the most vulnerable people in Canada, we improve access to safe, stable and affordable housing and we will reduce chronic homelessness,” he added.

Nixon called the investment significant.

“Today’s announcement ultimately is an agreement between the province and the federal government funding for Albertans leaving homelessness and it will have a significant impact on that vulnerable population going forward,” said Nixon.

The bi-lateral agreement ensures Alberta gets its fair share for its made-in-Alberta community encampment response plans to get people off the streets and back on their feet, said Nixon.

Nixon said it was important to recognize that homelessness challenges have expanded beyond Alberta’s two largest cities so bringing Lethbridge and Red Deer into the fold is a start to the process.

He noted rural areas will need different types of solutions to their own challenges and the funding is a recognition that the conversation on homelessness needs to be expanded beyond Canada’s largest cities.

Encampments aren’t a safe place for vulnerable people, especially in harsh winter conditions, said Nixon.

“Encampments are dangerous, they’re places where vulnerable Albertans are frozen to death, they’re victimized by gangs and far too many people have lost their lives as a result of that.”

Last year, the province made the biggest investment – nearly $220 million – in homeless supports in Alberta’s history and in the 2025 budget, it is investing more in the upcoming year, Nixon said.

“Since creating Alberta’s action plan on homelessness, Alberta’s government has been working diligently to support Albertans experiencing homelessness and helping to make homelessness brief and non reoccurring. We’ve been focused on better co-ordination in strengthening wraparound supports across the province to improve community responses and to achieve better outcomes for those seeking help,” added Nixon.

One of the shelters Nixon is most proud of is the Blackfoot Department of Health’s in Lethbridge, which runs all emergency supports here, he said.

“They’re doing incredible work,” the minister noted.

Between 2024 and this year, the Alberta government is providing about $200 million to fund local supportive local housing programs above and beyond its normal supports, Nixon said.