Edmonton took down 9,500 homeless camps last year — 40% more than in 2023
Cost to clean up camps was up 240% from the previous year, city says
Edmonton police and city crews removed nearly 9,500 homeless encampments in 2024 — up more than 40 per cent from the 6,700 they took down the year before, city data shows.
Costs to clean up sites went up by more than 240 per cent.
The city spent about $5.8 million last year to clean up about 5,300 encampment sites compared to $1.7 million to clean up 2,400 sites in 2023, according to its website. The city states that not every removal required the site to be cleaned up.
The Alberta government contributed $4.5 million in a one-time grant to help clean up camps in 2024, the city's website says.
Marta-Marika Urbanik, a criminology and sociology professor at the University of Alberta, has been studying the homelessness situation in 12 Canadian cities.
Simply removing encampments isn't working, nor is letting them proliferate, she said.
"We need to find ways to provide alternate housing and help solutions for our unhoused apart from just closing down encampments," Urbanik said in an interview Thursday.
More investment is needed in supportive housing to make sure those needs are met.
"Without meaningful funding allocated at all levels of government, there will be no meaningful massive improvements to our unhoused community members' lives."
Approach not working, advocate says
The city and police started a ramped-up approach to closing encampments at the end of 2023.
Some advocates have called the crackdown inhumane, especially when crews force people to move in the coldest weather.
Jim Gurnett, a spokesperson for the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, calls the approach an attack on the most vulnerable.
"It's a disaster that's making life more unsafe and more unhealthy for people. It's a catastrophe that's really putting lives even in danger," Gurnett said in an interview this week.
"The ridiculous nature of it is that we know it's not working because we have seen the biggest increase in people who are living in homelessness over this past year that I've seen in 25 years of being around this issue."
WATCH | Coun. Anne Stevenson discusses the city's encampment strategy:
Anne Stevenson, councillor for Ward O-day'min, said encampments in the downtown ward aren't as visible as they were a few years ago.
"But what I am hearing from colleagues in other wards is that they're getting so many more encampment complaints. So there really does seem to be some amount of displacement," Stevenson told CBC News earlier this week.
In early 2024, the Alberta government opened a navigation centre at 103rd Avenue and 107th Street in central Edmonton.
In the past year, the navigation centre has helped about 4,900 individuals access life-changing services, the government says, connecting them to identification, financial aid help, housing, shelter, health and addictions services, the province says.
- At least 265 people evicted from Edmonton homeless camps visit navigation centre
- 49 homeless encampments dismantled in Edmonton since lawsuit scrapped
Jason Nixon, minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services, is confident the centre is making a difference.
"We know the approach is working when we continue to hear that encampments are going down in the cities and that people are being connected to appropriate services to care for them in their unique circumstances," Nixon told Edmonton AM Thursday morning.
"Encampments are dangerous," he said. "If we want to care for people that are facing homelessness, having them sleep inside freezing tents with artificial heating sources made from propane and other dangerous sources is a ridiculous approach."
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton, as counted by Homeward Trust, was 4,963 in December.
That includes people staying in shelters, those without any shelter, and those who have provisional accommodation, such as couch-surfing, but no stable housing.
LISTEN | Community and social services minister Jason Nixon responds to the homeless crisis a year later:
All cities not equal
It's difficult to compare Edmonton's approach and numbers with other cities in Canada, said Jennifer Flaman, deputy city manager of community services.
Flaman explained that in Alberta, the provincial government is primarily responsible for health, housing, homelessness services, and broader responses to poverty and addiction.
"This is distinct from cities in provinces like Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia, where municipal governments often have more direct jurisdiction over housing and homelessness services, including encampment management."
Urbanik said municipalities across the country have been struggling to find solutions.
"There are no real best practices," she said. "And I really feel for municipalities and local law enforcement who are really trying to build the plane while they're flying it. They are trying different approaches and opportunities. And in some cases they're doing it right, in some cases they're doing it wrong. But ultimately they are left to their own devices."
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