Seven Cities, One Idea: Ending Homelessness in Alberta Joshua Evans, PhD Assistant Professor Centre for Social Sciences Athabasca University Alberta Studies Research Symposium March 4, 2013

Alberta: Canada’s Progressive Province?

Thesis A.Urban actors and places often overlooked in social policy development A.Interaction of urban actors and urban places with each other through global networks of policy learning is important to consider

Outline Policy Mobilities The Discourse of Ending Homelessness The Seven Cities Partnership Discussion and Conclusion

Policy Mobilities Aaron Koblin

The Discourse of Ending Homelessness

Statistical – the homeless census Biographical – client success stories Planning – the ‘Pathways’ model Economic – the ‘business case’

The Discourse of Ending Homelessness

The Seven Cities Partnership Calgary Homeless Foundation City of Grande Prairie City of Lethbridge Homeward Trust Edmonton Medicine Hat Community Housing Society Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo City of Red Deer

Following the policy: U.S. → Alberta Seven Cities Partnership: – Collaborative Research Initiative ( ) – Presentation to Standing Committee (Fall 2006) – IOPP experiments ( ) – Philip Mangano tour (Fall 2006) – Housing First Conference (June 2007) – Secretariat visits (Jan-Oct 2008)

Seven Cities Partnership “A huge sharing resources. Everyone's got limited funding and we do a lot of sharing, whether it's policies, whether it's best practice and all those types of benefits. Hugely beneficial.”

Seven Cities Partnership “It does take effort, we're all extremely busy, we've all got people waiting to meet with us, and we've given up other things to come and spend two days together. But it's because of the value that we get when we look at other communities”

Seven Cities Partnership “it's a safe place, where you can talk at a fairly equal level. And it's not a subordinate that you're talking to”

Seven Cities Partnership “This is tough slugging…I call it bleeding edge because this is new across Canada. What has been accomplished in Alberta is new. And so you're always on, what's happening in the States right now?...Anyways, we're always on that bleeding edge, and always being challenged and always being put on…I can't imagine doing that level of work without a group like this…to be isolated in your own community, trying to do that.”

Discussion and Conclusion