With most of the fat already trimmed over the past year, City Council is contemplating major reductions in an effort to get more value for the taxes residents pay, with possible cuts for valued community groups, raising certain fees and even selling Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) merchandise to bring in extra revenue.
Edmonton Police Service tore down a camp Wednesday, as temperatures dropped below -20 C, and Mayor Amarjeet Sohi called on council to declare a ‘housing and houselessness emergency’
To find out if safety concerns are part of what keeps some of the city’s homeless population away from the core, CBC News spoke with people camping in different parts of the city, as well as to outreach workers, police, a city councillor and a researcher.
With extremely cold conditions forecast for Edmonton in the coming days, the last of the eight high-risk homeless camps the city and police plan to remove still stands as camp residents and at least one city councillor air concerns about safety and capacity at shelters.