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editorial
Building a solution to the
hell that is homelessness
The irony is profound.
A southern Alberta
city that Rudyard Kipling
famously said had "all Hell for
a basement," is on track to
become Canada's first city to
put a roof over the head of all
its homeless.
In that, there's a lesson for
the entire country in moving
beyond the political paralysis
that has characterized home-
lessness for a generation —
ever since Paul Martin's infa-
mous 1995 federal budget
slipped the moorings on all
kinds of transfer payments
and began an era of down-
loading onto the provinces,
and their cities, more of the
burden of social programs,
including affordable housing.
With a population of
61,000, Medicine Hat, in one
of Alberta's most conserva-
tive corners, is not unlike
many small cities in Canada.
It is industrial and agricul-
tural, a service -sector and
professional hub. It could be
a city in Southwestern
Ontario, where small manu-
facturing centres also meet
the farm belt.
What makes Medicine Hat
unique — the thing that
inspired Kipling — is that it
sits on a vast deposit of natu-
ral gas, which has fueled its
prosperity and kept its books
clean.
But it's a different way of
thinking, not its fiery bowels,
that has put Medicine Hat on
the cusp of becoming Cana-
da's first city to end home-
lessness, a goal it expects to
reach in 2015 after a five-year
effort.
Medicine Hat decided to
house the homeless first, and
deal with the underlying
causes later. Since 2009, that
"housing first" approach has
put nearly 900 people, almost
one-third of them children,
into housing, with govern-
ment support to get them
started and rental subsidies
for a time afterward as case
workers help them find their
economic feet and deal with
other issues the homeless
often face.
Impressively, the city aims
to house within 10 days any-
one it finds in need.
Clearly, not every city can
do what Medicine Hat has
done. But with figures sug-
gesting its approach costs
roughly one-third the tab for
dealing with homelessness the
way it too often is dealt with,
through patchwork and costly
public services, Medicine
Hat's move is both compas-
sionate and pragmatic.
In a nation where official esti-
mates of the homeless range up
to 200,000, it's a useful reminder
that how public resources are
used is as important as how
many there are.
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