Edmonton Affordable Housing Maintenance Fund

A generous family member kept giving me cash with the only directions being “this is for the homeless,” so I spent many weekends walking through Old Strathcona and downtown Edmonton giving out five-dollar bills to whoever asked. That didn’t seem to help the problem. I interviewed service providers, and they told me most charity went to people who were already homeless, and in many cases this charity was too late to prevent the emotional, mental, and physical trauma of living in homelessness. Housing seemed to be the solution, but municipal, provincial, or federal money for housing is always at the mercy of competing priorities. After more discussions with people who worked in the area, I took the money from that generous family member, “for the homeless,” and established this endowment fund. My goals are:

• to help create a stable, ongoing source of funding for the maintenance and repair of low-income housing in Edmonton that is not subject to the vagaries of political funding, and
• to give the people of Edmonton an opportunity to support a solution for homelessness that is within their individual means.

The Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH.ca), a not-for-profit group made up of dozens of people and organizations who provide services to those suffering from housing and income insecurity, has agreed to support the promotion of the fund. I take that to mean they think it’s a good idea.

Please join me in supporting this or other housing initiatives to make our city a better place to live for everybody.

Eric Rice