Rural Access to Supports for Addictions, Homelessness, and Mental Health
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT Alberta Municipalities advocate to the Government of Alberta to provide a solution for municipalities of all populations with an identified need to address the issues of addiction, homelessness, and public safety, and build on the province’s recovery-oriented system of addiction and mental health care.
WHEREAS the province is providing $187 million to address addiction, homelessness, and mental health in Alberta’s large urban centres and while challenges remain in these centres, equitable access to training, support, funds, and resources has not been provided for municipalities of all populations across the province;
WHEREAS municipalities of all populations in Alberta require collaboration and coordination, as they are in dire need of assistance to deal with addiction, homelessness, and mental health;
WHEREAS every Albertan, no matter their circumstance, deserves the opportunity to pursue recovery from addiction, and pre-treatment programs can be a bridge between detox and treatment for people who are pursuing recovery from addiction;
WHEREAS the most common factors contributing to persons being homeless are lack of money, unaffordable rent or mortgage, mental health struggles, addictions, medical conditions, and job loss; and
WHEREAS the urgent need for shelter spaces in rural communities has been steadily increasing and requires provincial support as access to resources is limited.
Addiction and mental health issues are exacerbated in rural communities, including towns and villages, as there is generally a large geographical area to cover. As a result, people have to travel further for treatment and wait a long time for services. Municipalities in rural communities also require more workers and funding per capita than is needed in large urban centres for supporting and treating mental health and addiction.
The total number of emergency department visits in Peace River and area (six hospitals) in 2021/2022 that had an Addiction/Mental Health presentation were over 2,000, with 1,400 of those visits being mental health related and 600 of them substance related. In 2022, the Peace River RCMP detachment made 62 transfers (a 135% increase from the previous year) to convey a person with Addiction/Mental Health presentation to a designated facility in Grande Prairie and/or Edmonton. This uses up many hours of the officers’ time, in addition to the many hours responding to call outs from the public for these people.
When it comes to homelessness and understanding its causes, the larger urban experience tends to dominate the conversation due to the “visibility” of individuals experiencing homelessness. The issue of homelessness within rural and remote communities is far less understood or even acknowledged by the wider public because of its “hidden” nature. Individuals experiencing housing insecurity in rural and remote communities are more likely to couch surf, live in overcrowded housing, or own/rent housing that may need major repairs, often leveraging the relationships around them for support. The lack of available, accurate, and current data on rural communities’ homelessness limits the ability of those communities to advocate for better resources for their residents in greatest need.
The shelter in Peace River has 15-20 people staying there every night and this number is steadily increasing. In Peace River, when persons are released from the Peace River Correctional Center they are provided with transport into the downtown core and end up at the shelter when it is open, due to extenuating factors, which greatly increases the number of homeless in the area. In a one-month period, there were 80 persons transported to Peace River from the Correctional Center with no repatriation or transportation plan home for them. As a result, Peace River is overwhelmed with people who need better supports that rural communities cannot currently offer.
RMA passed a similar resolution earlier this year, which provides the opportunity for ABmunis and RMA to collaborate on advocating for increased access to supports for addictions, homelessness, and mental health for Albertans in municipalities large and small, urban and rural throughout Alberta.