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The Alberta government is taking away funding from an Edmonton non-profit\u2019s housing program, saying it wants to spend the money on a provider that can deliver better results.<\/p>\n
Boyle Street Community Services confirmed to CBC News on Wednesday that funding for its Housing First program will come to an end as of April 1.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Boyle Street told CBC News the social agency became aware of the funding decision last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are currently focused on working with partner agencies to transition individuals on our caseload to other teams,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cOver the next two weeks we will be making sure those transitions occur with minimal disruptions to those we serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring this difficult transition for staff and community, Boyle Street Community Services remains committed to supporting Edmonton’s most vulnerable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
CBC News asked Boyle Street for more details on the specific nature of the services that will be impacted by the decision but was directed to make any further inquiries to the provincial government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the legislature on Wednesday, Assisted Living and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon said while the funding arrangement with Boyle Street in particular is coming to an end, \u201cthere’s been no cuts to the budget in that area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He noted his department uses multiple programs to fulfil its mandate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat program in particular has not been meeting the same level of results for the participants as other programs when it comes to intensive housing management,\u201d Nixon said of Boyle Street\u2019s Housing First program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He added that aspects of the program were overlapping with other programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody will lose their funding that’s associated with the program \u2026 but the program participants are going to move into another program that sees better results through the work that they do,\u201d Nixon said.<\/p>\n
He said the government will issue a request for proposal to determine who can best provide the services that Boyle Street\u2019s Housing First program was receiving funding for.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoyle Street’s welcome to participate in that RFP process,\u201d Nixon said.<\/p>\n
Cameron Litowski, an Edmontonian who became homeless after fleeing domestic violence, said the news of the funding change is a heavy blow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Litowski said they work with a housing support staff member at Boyle Street and that they were able to rent an apartment for the first time in years because of help from the Housing First team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI received a call yesterday from my housing worker, and \u2026 I was told that their housing team was basically decimated,\u201d they said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
When CBC News reached out to the Ministry of Assisted Living and Social Services for more details about the funding changes and the future of the Housing First program, a government spokesperson said Boyle Street was funded to support 200 Albertans with case management services, but noted its current active caseload is only 54.<\/p>\n
Litowski said the support they received was invaluable and ranged from weekly mental health check-ins, meals and furniture, assistance with ensuring Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped payments went toward rent and a referral for therapeutic support at the George Spady Centre Society.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Litowski said they will now need to be transferred to another agency for support.<\/p>\n
Litowski said while they feel confident their support worker can help with a transfer, they are concerned that some people in need will fall through the cracks.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people who may be experiencing a mental health crisis, I am very concerned,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-530559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}