Responses to Homelessness - A Mini-Series About The Evolution Of Alberta’s Response - Part Two
This article is the second in The NEWS’ first ever mini-series. This article will focus on social housing policy in Alberta, prior to the adoption of the Housing First philosophy. The further along in the series we go, the less academic these articles will become. However, it is my firm belief that, in order to have a more fulsome picture of responses to homelessness, some historical research is of benefit. Finally, of note, should a reader happen to miss one article, while each article will be connected, they are meant to also work as standalones.
Housing Policy in Alberta Before Housing First
While Alberta would become the first province to adopt a strategic approach to ending homelessness, before this point, “efforts to address homelessness resembled a patchwork of policies and programs. They were well-intended and benefited many, but were often disconnected” (Alberta Secretariat, 2008, p. 14). While the norm nationally, provincial politics have deeply informed housing policy in this province.
Provincial governments have largely been responsible for most social housing funding. In fact, between 1997 and 2016, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) – Canada’s national housing agency, would sign social housing agreements with provinces and territories to allow them to assume control of community housing that were created through various federal programs (Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, 2019). With provinces in control, they were able to set funding requirements that aligned with their individual provincial policies, adding to the patchwork feel of policies and programs. Individual provincial control also resulted in significant impact on municipal responses to homelessness. To ensure adequate funding, municipalities have had to follow provincial direction. This becomes somewhat of a disadvantage as it removes some of the flexibility that municipalities have to respond to their unique community and social housing needs.
Impact of Economics and Politics on Social Policy
This brings us to the connection between economics, politics, and social policy. Acknowledging that there remains some debate around this point, a common theme emerged throughout Alberta public policy, especially in the post-war years: neoliberal ideals. Neoliberalism “is a theory of political economic practices proposing that human well-being can best be advanced by the maximization of entrepreneurial freedoms within an institutional framework characterized by private property rights, individual liberty, unencumbered markets, and free trade” (Harvey, 2007, p. 22). The 1970’s and 1980’s became an era where governments, university, and media adopted this ideology, attempting to justify increasing inflation and unemployment (Scrivens, 2013).
Neoliberalism has also become associated with the decline of the welfare state wherein government involvement is removed and replaced by the reliance on market forces and the privatization of public services (Scrivens, 2013). Social housing, a significant component of the welfare state, was largely impacted by this shift in ideology. While trying to restrain spending and reduce debt, social housing policy shifted from a public, government domain, to increasingly more private markets.
Enter the Non-Profit Sector
Government withdrawal from the welfare state has resulted in a strong response in kind: the surge in the non-profit sector. The non-profit sector experienced its fastest period of growth in Alberta between 1970 and 1990, growing 181% (Turner & Escamilla, 2020). While finding service provision specific information for Alberta overall is challenging, it has been estimated that, in 1990 in all of Canada, over half of social housing programs are “delivered and owned by small, non-profit, community- based groups, municipal non-profit associations, and social housing cooperatives,” and form what is known as the “third sector” (Wexler, 1996, p. 1915). This “third sector” would continue to play a big role in Alberta’s response to homelessness, even after it’s adoption of a strategic approach to ending homelessness in 2008.
Next Time
Again, there is no shortage of information that could be delved into here. This high-level overview provides the lead into the topic for the next article: Alberta’s adoption of the Housing First philosophy. In the meantime, should you have any comments or questions, please share them through email at a.burke@albertacounsel.com.
