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Two pilot projects at the Calgary Drop-In Centre are coming to an end this month.
Both the Encampment Shelter and Vicinity Outreach program, offered by the Drop-In Centre in recent years, will conclude at the end of March when federal funding comes to a scheduled end.
The Encampment Shelter program provided small shelter space for people living in encampments who weren’t yet ready to move into stable housing.
The Vicinity Outreach program built relationships with people in the area near the Drop-In Centre who weren’t necessarily using its other services and resources.
Sandra Clarkson, the Drop-In Centre’s executive director, praised the success of the program, including that the Encampment Shelter program housed 60 out of the 108 people who accessed it. She said the Drop-In Centre is still working with the handful of people still in the program to get them housed.
“The outcomes speak for themselves — those are amazing outcomes,” said Clarkson. “Sixty individuals who previously weren’t engaging with the system at all have now found permanent housing.”
Core operations at the Drop-In Centre are not affected by the funding change, Clarkson said.
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The federal funding came from the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampments Initiative, which was launched in 2024 as a response to what Ottawa saw as an urgent uptick in these issues across Canada in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and a national housing crisis.
The $250-million initiative was designed to create more transitional and supportive housing, support shelter transformation projects, and services to help people experiencing homelessness and living in encampments to find more stable housing.
But it was a one-time, short-term investment, scheduled to end this month.
“Communities were encouraged as of 2024 to plan accordingly, notably by incorporating a sustainability component beyond the end of the agreement in their respective Community Encampment Response Plans,” Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada said in a statement.
While the pilot programs were partially funded by the provincial government, Clarkson said the province was unable to cover the difference left by the federal funding loss, citing a budget that projected a $9.4-billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.
Clarkson said the Drop-In Centre will advocate for a return of the program or some kind of similar replacement.