Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA)

On March 16, 2009, the Alberta Government announced an ambitious plan to end homelessness in this province, the first to make such declaration in Canada. This plan saw a shift from relying on emergency shelters to manage the problem and instead use Housing First principles to create not only housing stability but diversion from future homelessness. From a financial perspective, simply managing homelessness was projected to cost the Alberta Government more than six billion dollars over 10 years. This figure does not include the indirect costs of homelessness that tax payers absorb through the health, corrections and justice systems which conservatively is estimated at 100,000 dollars per homeless person per year. This is a far cry from the projected 3.16 Billion dollars that the implementation of the plan to end homelessness will cost over the same 10 year period. From a human stand point, healthier Canadians mean healthier homes and children which means a brighter future for Canada. The speaker will argue th