Community Safety In Edmonton

Community safety comes up in conversations all around ward pihêsiwin - all the time.  After property taxes and construction frustrations, it is one of the top issues  on residents’ minds, both in our neighbourhood and across Edmonton. 

This blog is not going to discuss the impacts of “real” crime - the violent crimes, fraud, and theft (amongst others) that we rely on the police to address. I am exceedingly grateful for their presence when needed, and we need to preserve those vital service levels.

What we’ve heard

 Let’s be honest: when people talk about community safety, it’s most often relating to social disorder, homelessness, and the impacts of people occupying and living in public spaces. 

 I would break this down into:

•  The discomfort that people feel when places of public gathering, recreation, transportation, and business are used by people with nowhere else to go.

• The resulting debris in these public spaces, ranging from litter,larger items, and biohazards like needles. 

• The threat to private property from individuals in crisis (and yes, it’s possible to have empathy for people in dire situations while also not wanting your bike stolen or your business broken into). 

  
  

And most importantly:

•  The real threat to people’s personal safety from unpredictable behaviours of individuals who are under the influence of substances

  
  

Edmonton needs a plan to address all these concerns - and the plan needs to be right-sized and executed in partnership with the people doing the work, the people with real-experiences of homelessness, people and businesses impacted by homelessness, and different orders of government. 

 Homelessness is not ok 

Edmonton should not be a city that tolerates homelessness, and to be really clear,  I’m referring to the state of homelessness, and not the humans experiencing it.  We need to do whatever it takes to support people off the streets, out of emergency shelters and other services, and into stable housing.  I’ve already written about the need for more housing supply, particularly below-market affordable and supportive housing. This blog will focus instead on the impacts of homelessness on  communities, and what the City of Edmonton can do about it  

We can’t call housing an emergency and declare an opioid epidemic without decisive, bold action. This connects to the City’s push on housing densification, expansion outside the Henday, and the growth of affordable and supportive housing. While we’ve made progress on housing supply, we also need a coordinated effort to support the complex needs of unhoused Edmontonians, and minimize the impacts of homelessness on communities and businesses in Edmonton. 

What can the City of Edmonton do? 

 The City should continue supporting housing development.  That is the most concrete path to  ending homelessness.  Beyond that, we  need to address its wider impacts:  the collateral impacts of homelessness and our path forward for that is to: 

1. Right-size funding for homeless-serving programs that minimize their operations’ impact on surrounding neighbours and communities,  in collaboration with other orders of government. 

   
   

2. Expand non-police response teams to proactively address any community impact of homeless-serving programs; freeing up police and other emergency responders for their core responsibilities

   
   

3. Collaborate with Indigenous-led organizations, people with lived and living experience, and community groups to shape effective, local solutions.    

   
   

4. Work with the Province on meaningful improvement and thoughtful implementation of the Compassionate Intervention Act at the municipal level.  

   
   
   
   

 In detail:

1. Community Impact of Homeless-Serving Programs

   
   

Just as businesses are conscious of customer traffic, noise and waste, social service agencies should also be accountable for the impacts their operations have on surrounding communities.   However, this expectation must be balanced with the urgent need of improving lives and getting people off the streets.  Instead, community impact needs to be a core consideration in the funding models of homeless-serving programs, not an afterthought. The City’s resources can also play a role in minimizing community impact, building on the successful precedent of the Downtown Action Plan and other city-led initiatives, to mitigate the negative impacts of homelessness in public spaces. 

2. Investment in Non-Police Resources

   
   

Most Edmontonians recognize that we can’t enforce our way out of homelessness. The police themselves have invested in social policing initiatives like HELP, which should not only be supported but built upon. Additional funding  for services such as 211 Crisis Diversion and expanding COTT teams is crucial.  With a limited budget, 211 Crisis Diversion delivers a phenomenal return on investment, about $5 in strategic value for every $1 investment, by responding to non-emergent calls before they escalate into crises.  Similarly, expanding COTT teams across  transit and LRT systems would increase public confidence, support transit operators, and assist staff in libraries and recreation centres. 

3. Lived-Experience Engagement

   
   

Past City and Provincial task forces on homelessness have led to useful initiatives, such asCommunity Health Centres and Navigation Centres in Edmonton and Calgary. Applying that level of engagement and lived-expertise, this time targeted on community safety impacts will add nuance and perspective to this conversation. 

4. Thoughtful Implementation of the Compassionate Intervention Act

   
   

Housing First is often criticized, but numbers do not lie – over 20,000 people in Edmonton using this approach since 2008.  In recent years though, we’ve seen the system operating beyond its capacity, both in the  volume of individuals served and the complexity of people’s situations. This has led to a rise in the number of people in Edmonton’s streets and shelters, and also, many of whom require medical and psychiatric care they are unable to access.  

The ideal outcome would be sufficient healthcare resources to address all these needs.  Unfortunately, this is not a reality now, nor is it likely to be in the near future. Despite the province’s investments into the recovery and treatment spaces, significant logistical barriers remain. For example,  there are roughly 90 detox beds available for Edmonton’s inner-city population between the George Spady and the AHS operated Addiction Recovery Centre (ARC) for the nearly 2000 individuals experiencing absolute homelessness (defined as either sleeping rough or in emergency shelters most nights of the week), many of whom are misusing substances (this extrapolated from Homeward Trust's 2024 Point-in-Time Count data).    

In place of the ideal, the Province introduced the Compassionate Intervention Act in 2025, which allows individuals to be forced into drug treatment programs without their consent. The Act remains highly contentious, may  face charter challenges, lacks clinical evidence of any efficacy, and lacks the support of the Alberta Medical Association.  

So how is this a potential solution?  And more importantly, how might the City of Edmonton engage with the province and service providers to use this tool, however imperfect, to address homelessness and community safety?                                     

If the Province proceeds, the City must work within these boundaries.   While flawed, however, there are tangible ways to advance this work forward that addresses some of the fundamental concerns of the legislation.

1. Honesty - Call it what it is: forced respite 

   
   

A forced removal of individuals from homelessness is the heart of the Act, and there are positives to this approach:

• Benefits to the individual

  • Respite from the stress of sleeping rough and the removal of individuals from high risk situations can help. During COVID isolation, individuals who were ordered to isolate received safe lodging, food, and medical care showed a greater willingness to engage with providers.  Similarly, detox programs at the George Spady and ARC offer rest periods off the streets and emergency shelters, even for those who don’t transition to treatment.  

• Benefits to society 

  • Communities,businesses and first-responders experience the consequences of unchecked drug use, including the erosion of trust between civil society and agencies working to end homelessness. Temporary removal acts as an “escape valve” providing relief to all parties.  

• Alternative to the justice system 

  • The Act offers intervention without a criminal record, preventing future barriers to housing and employment.  

    
    

To call the Compassionate Intervention Act a clinical intervention is dishonest.  Let’s acknowledge what it is - relief for the individual, the community, and our systems of care.  

2. The development of a triage tool supported by experts 

   
   

The Province’s current  assessment process involves a three member panel that occurs within 72 hours, is a thoughtful but subjective approach that risks inconsistency in execution.  If this is to be a healthcare tool, objective assessment tools are needed.  Clinical correlations exist between drug poisonings and traumatic brain injuries and the incidence of ICU admissions and mortality.  Standardized tools to measure cognitive decline could help to determine suitability for treatment.  

Alberta should draw on its world-class leaders in addiction medicine, individuals’ lived experience in successfully completing drug treatments, and the cultural expertise of Indigenous leaders to create assessment tools that the community can stand behind, providing individuals, communities, and care providers the clarity to know when and how the Act may be utilized.   

3. Appropriate discharge planning and resourcing

   
   

Critically, people  removed from homelessness, must not be returned to those dangerous situations. The same mechanisms that make Housing First  successful need to be utilized for people leaving treatment.  A parallel system that houses people directly from the streets, with expedited and prioritized pathways for people discharged from treatment facilities is needed, and that system needs to draw on the expertise of the housing systems that have    

All hands on deck

Homelessness, and its impacts on community safety, is a vital issue for Edmonton. We need leaders who have the first-hand experience, clinical expertise, and objective understanding to drive real change.  There is no quick solution: not more policing, but not unchecked advocacy,  not punitive bylaws, but not occupation of public spaces. Not forced treatment without consent, but also not harm reduction without clear goals. And we must avoid pitting “woke” accusations against “NIMBY” labelling, or setting up conflict between progressive vs. conservative ideologies. Instead, we need empathy for differing perspectives, paired with the expertise and objectivity to deliver tangible solutions.