Time to Rethink Need For Calgary Homeless Foundation?
Back in 2008, the Calgary Homeless Foundation together with other agencies announced a 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness in Calgary. While many good things have been accomplished to address Calgary’s homeless situation since then, thousands of Calgarians remain homeless. And in fact, tent cities were starting to appear in the trees along the Bow and Elbow Rivers in the summer. Currently, the City of Calgary estimates a need for housing for 3,000 homeless Calgarians today - about the same as it was in 2008.
Over the past 25 years, I have learned you can never end homelessness. There will always be people, due to unfortunate circumstances, who become homeless. For some it might be temporary; for others, it’s chronic. The best a society can do is work towards reducing the time both groups spend being homeless.
Calgary Drop-In Centre is one of 60+ agency providing affordable housing for homeless and those in need.
Too Much Bureaucracy?
Is it time to rethink the need for the Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF)? Has the Calgary Housing Affordability Collective with its 40 agencies become the voice for homelessness in Calgary? Do these agencies still need CHF to negotiate funding from the government? Has the CHF just become more government red tape?
Full Disclosure: In 1995, John Currie (then Chair of the Calgary Downtown Association Board) and I (then Executive Director) initiated the formation of the Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF) after attending an International Downtown Association Conference. It was at that conference we learned what was happening in American cities with respect to homelessness and recognized it was an issue Calgary needed to proactively address. We contacted Art Smith, who then worked with the Alberta Premier’s office, to establish the CHF, which happened in 1998. I was a member of the original Board of Directors.
The reason I left the Calgary Homeless Foundation Board after about five years was I felt the organization was already becoming too bureaucratic. Too much time was spent talking about how to help the homeless and very little time doing anything about it.
Link: Calgarians honour 123 homeless people who died in 2019
Calgary Homeless Foundation Costs
It was recently brought to my attention that CHF’s 2018 budget (the last budget posted online) had salaries and office costs of a staggering $5.5 million. This seems like a huge number given The Foundation doesn’t operate any programs, but simply act as a broker for provincial funds which are passed on to various Calgary agencies.
When the CHF was first established, its function was to advocate and streamline Provincial funding for existing agencies dealing with homelessness in Calgary. Today those organizations - Calgary Drop-In Centre, Salvation Army’s Centre of Hope, Mustard Seed, Alpha House, Horizon Housing, HomeSpace, CUPS, The Alex, SILVERA and Trinity Place Foundation of Alberta - have all grown in scale and sophistication of their operations.
Has the CHF outlived its purpose? Is it now simply more red tape in the Provincial government’s social services bureaucracy. It is time for the Alberta government to disband the CHF and fund the agencies directly? The $5.5 million dollars (or most of it) could be put to good use to fund new homeless projects each year. Or fund programs to help the chronic homeless.
Too Many Homeless Agencies?
Perhaps there are other administrative redundancies? There are currently 40 agencies that are members of the Calgary Housing Affordability Council and the City of Calgary website says “more than 60 affordable housing partners are working to provide safe and stable homes to individuals and families.”
That seems like a lot of agencies and partners. It would be interesting to add up the annual salaries and administration costs of the 60 partners. Each has a CEO, President, Executive Director or General Manager, administrative staff, as well as office and administrative costs. While these organizations serve different homeless populations and offer more than just housing, surely there is an opportunity to merge some of these group? Could we cut some of these costs and use the money instead to fund more housing or programs?
Last Word
Perhaps it is time to for the Calgary Homeless Foundation’s to recognize the city’s various social agencies have evolved to the point where it is no longer needed. I don’t believe the Foundation was meant to exist in perpetuity. Isn’t the definition of success, to do yourself out of a “job.”
You might be interested in these blogs:
Creating A Healthy City: Affordable Housing For Everyone
Is Calgary’s 2025 Affordable Housing Plan Flawed?