Ottawa and Alberta have teamed up on an initiative aimed at the province’s most vulnerable citizens.
The federal and provincial governments will put a combined $70 million over two years toward new Made-in-Alberta Community Encampment Response Plans in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and Lethbridge.
According to the most recent data from Homeward Trust, Edmonton’s main housing agency, 1,283 people were living unhoused and unsheltered in the city in January 2025 and 775 were living in shelters. That included 249 people entering or re-entering homelessness.
“We recognize that encampments are just not a safe place for vulnerable people to live, especially during harsh and cold winters,” said Jason Nixon, minister of seniors, community and social services.
“Eliminating chronic homelessness is everybody’s business, and it’s going to take a coordinated effort to get it done,” said Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonnault.
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Federal funding will come from the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative, while Nixon said Alberta’s $35 million will come from the $212 set aside in Budget 2025 for homelessness initiatives.
Money will help support people living unhoused, with plans including improvements to shelter safety and increased access to navigation centres, transportation supports and pet care for people leaving encampments.
“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,” Nixon said.
The province reports that 9,000 people have accessed navigation centres in Edmonton and Calgary since the first opened in January 2024.
Nixon said the funding agreement was signed in the fall, with projects already selected and grants in the process of being signed.
