Daryl Bonar began the run from Wood’s Homes EXIT Youth Shelter in Calgary on Sunday. He plans to finish the trek at the Youth Emergency Shelter Society’s Homeless For a Night event in Edmonton on Friday.

Both shelters will receive money raised from the run and Bonar will stop for rallies in several communities along the way.

This award was created to enable Alberta based not-for-profit organizations to move their projects from the idea stage to reality. In support of this goal, Manasc Isaac will donate $10,000 of consulting time to the creation of a Conceptual Design/Feasibility Study. This will enable your organization to use this concept to seek partners, funding, and determine timelines for your project. 

The Supreme Court of Canada is hearing arguments today in Attorney General of Canada v. PHS Community Services Society, et al. This case will rule on whether Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection clinic, can stay open.

The Globe and Mail article outlines some of the arguments for and against, and you can also watch the proceedings live on CPAC.

The Edmonton Social Planning Council has released an updated fACT Sheet on Edmonton’s growing, dynamic Aboriginal population. Click on the link to read more.

Aboriginal peoples are disproportionately overrepresented in Edmonton’s homeless community. Through our organization’s structure and programs, Homeward Trust works to deliver culturally appropriate services to Aboriginal peoples.

Steven Sandor of Avenue Magazine Edmonton visited Find: Furnishing Hope, and shared his thoughts on the Avenue blog:

What is Find? It’s the name of an outlet where the public can donate large household items, from tables and chairs to sofas and stereos. They are prepared for sale and put on the store shelves. The people referred to Find through various social agencies - often chronically homeless or escaping a home with domestic violence - can “shop” at the outlet, picking out the furniture they like.

Find is open to the public on Thursdays, Friday, and Saturdays from 11am - 5pm. We encourage you to stop by.

Follow Find on Twitter: @findYEG

“Rather than just displace some of the challenge and displace the young and old people that are there, it would be important to work on some systemic issues those that use the library are facing,” Daly said. The new workers will link people with addictions services, employment, housing or education opportunities.

They will also train library staff to work with marginalized patrons.

The bed closures are an important milestone in the city plan to end homelessness.

Tim Richter, CEO of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, said the bed closures at the Booth Centre mark an “important tipping point,” as the organization celebrates the third anniversary of the 10-year plan to end homelessness.

“We’re beginning to be able to shift from an emergency response to homelessness to permanent solutions,” Richter said.

The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA) has put together a comparison of each party’s platform on housing and homelessness. Another resource for voters in our upcoming election.

Interesting story:

But two recent empirical studies - one for Ontario, another for Quebec – show that the intersection between those who earn minimum wage and those who are in low-income households is surprisingly small.

The rate of poverty among minimum wages earners is roughly the same as the poverty rate in the general population. Even if you set aside the employment effects, increasing the minimum wage would have the same effect on poverty as distributing money at random. Some people in low-income households will benefit, but that will be more a matter of random chance than of policy design.

Your thoughts?