Older People Experiencing Homeless in Alberta: Precarities, Public Policies, and Planning for the Future


Travis Hay, Mount Royal University; Mandi Gray, Trent University

The rate at which older people are experiencing homelessness is growing in Alberta and across Canada more broadly (Humphries and Canham, 2021; Milaney, Kamran, and Williams, 2020). The increasing problem of homelessness among older adults not only troubles aging populations but also poses specific challenges for policymakers and service providers. This demographic trend, characterized by the greying of homelessness, introduces complexities due to the diverse needs, medical issues, and precarities faced by older people experiencing homelessness (OPEH). In Alberta, this growing need for the development of services and policies for OPEH is complicated by a provincial socio-political economy in which neoliberalism and anti-harm reduction sentiments intersect to prevent, foreclose, or defund supportive housing models for OPEH that incorporate the principles and practices of harm reduction (Nixon and Burns, 2022). As a response, our research team undertook a larger policy analysis to identify how to best support OPEH with complex needs (including addiction). Towards this end, our four-pillar analysis centred upon 1) the housing and homelessness sector; 2) continuing care in Alberta; 3) federal and provincial approaches to harm reduction; and 4) the operation of Federal Indian policy. After conducting interviews with key experts and analyzing the role of provincial and federal policies, we produced five key recommendations seeking to secure a more robust set of supports for OPEH in Alberta: 1) consolidating current approaches to enumerating OPEH in Alberta using the age of 50 as a standard metric; 2) Freezing the age of eligibility for Old Age Security payments at 65; 3) Fully integrating harm reduction services within facility-based networks of continuing care in Alberta; 4) Acknowledging the risks of reliance on home-based continuing care for older people who are unhoused; and 5) Grounding emergent strategic frameworks to address OPEH within a consideration of federal Indian policy and the unique causes and contours of Indigenous homelessness. On the basis of these recommendations, we submit that Alberta (and, by extension, other Canadian provinces) has a dire need to adopt preventative approaches and develop comprehensive and coordinated policy responses for OPEH given the degree to which extant models of care and service provision can produce significant barriers for those at an advanced age. Emergent strategies, co-designed approaches, and policies must be advanced in close collaboration with diverse OPEH across stages of development. Therefore, this research project was also informed by and grounded in lived expertise through consultation with OPEH. The research team includes members who are directly involved with the kind of innovative, supportive housing models our research identified as lacking (e.g., models that anticipate the unique needs of OPEH). It is worth remembering that Alberta was an early adopter of ‘housing first’ models in Canada and our hope is that these collaborative research and knowledge mobilization activities will encourage the province to act as a leader in Canada in the realm of policy responses to older adult homelessness (rather than reproducing the social and structural forms of hate that put OPEH in precarious positions).

Non-presenting authors: Lara Nixon, University of Calgary; Megan Beth Sampson, University of Calgary; Kaye Leatherdale, Lakehead University; Jes Annan, University of Calgary

This paper will be presented at the following session: