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Renaud wants better accommodations for Albertans experiencing homelessness

“(There are) hundreds of individuals using the same washrooms, touching the same sinks, using the same toilets, touching potentially the same walls and areas."
Renaud homeless supports
St. Albert MLA and opposition critic for community and social services Marie Renaud was joined by housing advocate and president and CEO of BeTheChangeYYC, Chaz Smith, in calling for the homeless population to be housed in hotels during the COVID crisis.

St. Albert MLA Marie Renaud called on the government to create safer living conditions for Albertans who are homeless during the pandemic.

Currently the provincial government has made arrangements for Albertans who are homeless to sleep on mats one meter apart from each other, alternating from head to toe, creating more than one-meter distance between their heads. Individuals experiencing homelessness are being housed in large centers, like the Edmonton Expo center.

The Edmonton Expo Centre opened as an emergency shelter on Wednesday night.

Alberta Community and Social Services Minister Rajan Sawhney said they decided to move forward with places like the Expo centre because it wasn’t possible to transfer 300 people from shelter into hotels and motels because if the work that would need to be done to retrofit the buildings for suicide prevention.

“Speed was a consideration,” she said.

“We needed to have the spaces put in place as soon as possible.”

But Renaud said that cities like Vancouver and Toronto have found solutions to house individuals experiencing homelessness in hotels.

“Toronto has plans to lease 800 hotel rooms to support their homeless populations. Vancouver is securing hundreds of hotel rooms for homeless people to live in,” Renaud said.

COVID-19 UPDATE: Follow our COVID-19 special section for the latest news on the coronavirus pandemic, as well as resources, FAQs and more.

Renaud was joined by housing advocate, president and CEO of BeTheChangeYYC, Chaz Smith, who said Albertans without should be housed in better conditions.

Smith said with the recommendations for social distancing he wonders how Albertans experiencing homelessness will be able to stay far enough away from each other.

“(There are) hundreds of individuals using the same washrooms, touching the same sinks, using the same toilets, touching potentially the same walls and areas,” Smith said.

“If one individual, if you can imagine, in such a dense population, were to get sick how quickly that would transmit to each other.”

Smith said in his opinion the solution is not the best option for the population.

On Wednesday afternoon Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Deena Hinshaw explained the province is trying to weigh the risks to the homeless population and said she approved the exemption, which doubled the shelter capacity.

“It's trying to weigh out the risks to those individuals who need to use those shelters, with respect to transmission, and the risks of having them potentially out in the cold,” Hinshaw said, noting it could be dangerous to have individuals outside during the unusually cold spring.

“The people who are lying next to each other are not just one metre apart from one head to another, but they're actually further apart because of the diagonal distance between the two heads.”


Jennifer Henderson

About the Author: Jennifer Henderson

Jennifer Henderson is the editor of the St. Albert Gazette and has been with Great West Media since 2015
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