BOB MCKEON

Homelessness is becoming an increasingly important issue in Edmonton and across Canada. Edmonton's most recent homeless street count in 2008 identified over 3,000 men, women and children as homeless. This number has increased steadily in recent years. In the face of this crisis, two years ago the mayor of Edmonton called for a new way to address this crisis. The past practice was to manage the homeless crisis by annually increasing the number of shelter mats in the inner city and incrementally expanding funding for winter emergency plans.