Homeward Trust Edmonton focuses on Aboriginal housing needs

A new group of community leaders has stepped up to advise Homeward Trust on how to fight homelessness in Edmonton in a culturally appropriate way for Aboriginal clients.

“The Aboriginal component is at the core of what we do. The Aboriginal Advisory Council is not about adding another layer of administration. It’s about making sure our programs and projects are reflective of the unique cultural aspects and special needs of our Aboriginal clients,” said Alex Abboud, communications manager for Homeward Trust Edmonton. “These need to be incorporated into our initiatives in order for them to be effective.”

About 40 percent of Edmonton’s homeless are of Aboriginal ancestry, said Abboud, “but it’s not just the numbers. Aboriginal people are much more likely to experience homelessness because many of them are in the lower socio-economic bracket and so are at risk.” That is why the Aboriginal Advisory Council has been a key committee of Homeward Trust since its inception in 2008.

Homeward Trust is the merger of the Edmonton Housing Trust Fund and the Edmonton Joint Planning Committee on Housing. The agency’s governance structure stipulates that four of if its nine board members must be from the Aboriginal community. All housing workers and new Homeward Trust employees take part in an Aboriginal Diversity Workshop where Gilman Cardinal, an Elder in the community, teaches about cultural customs and traditions, while Eva Stang, from the Aboriginal Education Centre at Grant MacEwan University, addresses legal aspects and some of the misconceptions in the community about the rights of Aboriginal peoples.

“So this is one thing Homeward Trust does to help give our workers that understanding of how to best work with their Aboriginal clients,” said Abboud. “The board and committee members provide another lens, a different perspective. Any projects projected to have a 50 percent Aboriginal client base are projected to the Aboriginal Advisory Council for its input early in the planning process. “It’s about being pro-active. We don’t want to find out too late, that we’ve missed something.”

The new members of the Aboriginal Advisory Council are Damian Abrahams, an Aboriginal youth advocate; Leith Campbell, with The Virgo Group; Brenda Desjarlais from The Family Centre; Norma Giroux, with the Aboriginal Development Branch of the provincial government; and April Wiberg  with the Mikisew Group of Companies.

Homeward Trust funds capital projects like new housing units, but it also helps administer the Housing First initiative together with 10 other agencies in Edmonton.
“Traditionally, we really manage homelessness, you know, by funding shelters, by making sure people have beds where there is support on site, but Housing First is a fundamental shift in that it places a client in market housing, like an apartment,” said Abboud.

Outreach workers help clients find accommodations and establish relationships with landlords, while follow up support workers maintain close contact with clients for about a year.

“In many ways that person is like a life coach. Some clients have been on the street for years, or have been in and out of shelters. The support worker helps with all kinds of things like budgeting, getting to appointments, or finding training programs.”

The number of homeless people in Edmonton has gone up steadily over the last decade from 1,114 in 1999 to the last point-in-time count of 3,079 in October 2008. Homeward Trust and its predecessors have created 1,924 additional housing units since 2001, and the agency has placed 546 homeless persons since April 2009.