Homelessness and supportive housing in Alberta

La version française de ce billet se trouve ici.

I recently helped organize a study tour on homelessness and supportive housing in Alberta, with a focus on Edmonton and Calgary. A partnership with the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness, our group consisted of 30 participants, all from Toronto’s non-profit sector.

Here are 10 things to know:

1. The Government of Alberta now sees itself as a homelessness ‘system planner.’ Until very recently, other entities—known as Community-Based Organizations (CBOs)—played this role in the province’s largest cities. Having said that, CBOs will continue to focus on data stewardship, training, and Coordinated Access (more information about this recent shift is available here).

2. The Province provides important sources of funding to both create and operate supportive housing. The Affordable Housing Partnership Program is Alberta’s housing construction program through which approximately $85,000 per unit in provincial capital funding is available—this typically translates into one-third of a project’s capital costs. Community housing providers in Alberta, as of January 2025, are also exempt from property taxes (previously, only government-owned affordable housing properties were exempt).

3. The Government of Alberta provides important demand-side assistance. About 12,000 Albertans get rent supplements annually.[1] There are three streams of rent supplements in the province: one for people fleeing gender-based violence; one for persons getting temporary rent supplements ($200-$250/month); and one for people with greater needs, namely the Rental Assistance Benefit (about $750-$900/month).

4. Navigation and Support Centres, operated by the Province in both Edmonton and Calgary, are a relatively new phenomenon. The first one opened in Edmonton when the Chief of Police requested support for individuals exiting a large encampment. NSCs have staff at a single site who can provide referrals and identification (pets are also a large focus). There is now a second NSC in Calgary.

5. Similar one-stop services were being offered at a Calgary site well before the Province began operating NSCs. The SORCe (Safe Communities Opportunity & Resource Centre) is a multi-agency Calgary collaborative that connects people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, to programs and services that can address barriers to stable housing. It’s also a frequent location of the administration of Calgary’s common assessment tool for Housing First and other supports. The SORCe has been operating in downtown Calgary since June 2013; its focus is housing and homelessness, and navigating services throughout the city. The SORCe works closely with Calgary’s NSCs but there are key differences between the two entities (all of which are discussed here).

6. NiGiNan Housing Ventures has an initiative that seeks to limit involvement from Child and Family Services. The organization was created by seven Indigenous women just over 10 years ago. NiGiNan provides Indigenous-led supportive housing with a strong harm reduction focus. Its Omamoo Wango Gamik site is a family building where extended family can provide assistance to children when a parent is incarcerated or enters treatment.

7. The Calgary Drop-In Centre is a large facility that has gone through transformational change in recent years. It used to be that, the longer a resident stayed there, the more priority access they got to preferred floors. Now, priority for those floors goes to residents who are working on a housing search. Lower acuity residents often move on to private rental units (many without rent supplements and without ongoing case management). Higher acuity clients, by contrast, tend to require both financial subsidy and ongoing case management upon placement into housing.

8. Kiosks at facilities can give residents and staff the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback. Self-serve anonymous kiosks are now placed strategically throughout several buildings operated by the Calgary Drop-In Centre. Respondents can answer multiple choice questions about the quality of services available on site (e.g., food, cleanliness). Updated live dashboards showing survey results are available every day. Each kiosk can provide survey questions in up to 200 languages.

9. The Alpha House Encampment Team (formerly the DOAP Team) diverts people from law enforcement.This initiative, which started in 2005, now has 40 vans and runs 24-7. It’s quite integrated into Calgary’s 211/911 system—the team now get direct calls (instead of police getting calls for which Alpha House is better suited). This team also goes to encampments to check on clients. Staff with this team can also do housing assessments and referrals (including to detox and treatment).

10. HomeSpace Society offers an interesting model for other parts of Canada. HomeSpace is a Calgary-based non-profit developer, owner and operator. It operates under a governance board designed to understand real estate and appropriate levels of risk. HomeSpace now has about 1,000 units (none of which are market units). It does not work directly with the tenants (in terms of wraparound support). Every unit in HomeSpace’s portfolio is attached to an organization with a social mandate.

In sum. This blog post provides an overview of a study tour organized in partnership with the Toronto Alliance to End Homelessness. A more detailed summary of the study tour can be found here.

I wish to thank Jenny Morrow and Annick Torfs for assistance with this blog post.

[1] For context, according to the 2021 Census, nearly 10% of Alberta households—representing more than 154,000 households and 295,090 persons—are in core housing need. That generally means they’re either paying more than 30% of their income on housing, are living in housing in need of major repairs, or are living in housing with too few bedrooms.