VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – While the mayor of Vancouver still aims to rid the city of homelessness, an expert is telling us to look east at a province that seems to be doing something right in keeping people off the streets.

Stephen Gaetz of the Canadian Homelessness Research Network says Alberta is a leader in Canada, thanks to a three-pronged approach.

“They’ve invested in increasing the supply of affordable housing. Secondly, they’ve retooled the emergency sector to focus on making the stays in shelters shorter. Thirdly, they’ve really invested heavily in the Housing First approach,” he explains. “The provincial government there is moving in the right direction.”

Housing First focuses on giving the vulnerable permanent housing, so they have one less thing to worry about as they deal with addictions, mental issues and unemployment.

He says when you look at the costs of responding to homelessness,  it makes economic sense to put people in permanent housing. Relying on charitable services to house the homeless winds up costing a lot more money, he notes. Plus when people are homeless, they get sick more often, suffer from more mental illness and their addictions get worse.

“The cost of staying in a homeless shelter per month is about $2,000. To stay in prison it’s about $4,500. To stay in hospital it’s about $10,000. To give someone a rent subsidy, it’s $700 a month. To put them in social housing, it’s $200 dollars a month.”