Innovative Edmonton program providing housing for homeless ER patients set to expand

More than 300 patients without housing have gone from Edmonton emergency rooms directly into transitional accommodation since the launch of a unique program in March 2023.

Work is now underway for the Bridge Healing Transitional Accommodation Program to grow, with two additional buildings expected to come online late next year.

"It's making a big difference in the lives of patients that we're serving. It's reducing visits to the ER," said Dr. Louis Francescutti, an emergency room physician and professor at the University of Alberta.

"Our only problem is we don't have enough beds for the five emergency departments that are sending patients."

Bridge Healing is the brainchild of a team of students at the University of Alberta who took Francescutti's advocacy class. It opened its doors as a partnership between Alberta Health Services and the Jasper Place Wellness Centre.

The students' concept was simple: ask ER patients experiencing homelessness if they want a chance to start again.

If they say yes and qualify, they go directly to one of three 12-unit healing houses at 160th Street and 100th Avenue in the Glenwood neighbourhood.

But only if there's room.

According to provincial figures, unhoused people made 26,000 trips to Alberta emergency departments last year.

The only time Bridge Healing's 36 beds aren't fully occupied is when someone is checking out.

"We're probably going to need at least another 100 buildings at 12 beds, that's another 1,200 beds, because the demand is quite high," Francescutti said.

Bridge Healing started with one 12-unit building in March 2023. Two more opened in the fall of that year.

Two more 12-unit buildings will open in 2025, also in Glenwood, largely thanks to $815,000 in grants and land from the City of Edmonton.

The city also provided $290,000 in 2022 to help with capital costs associated with the pilot program.

Bridge Healing relies heavily on private donations as well. Construction company Qualico recently raised $180,000 at a golf tournament and the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation provided seed money to get the pilot off the ground.

Recovery Alberta, which pays for operational costs, told CBC News it doesn't have data to show if the program is reducing repeated trips to the ER by unhoused individuals.

A provincial spokesperson said an evaluation will be finished by next April to inform next year's funding.

Francescutti pointed to studies elsewhere showing that on average per person, trips to the ER were reduced by 40 per cent with the introduction of stable housing, with an annual cost savings of $24,000 per person.

He said the Edmonton experience is in line with those studies. He said participants who in the past have visited ERs dozens if not hundreds of times are making far fewer trips.

Francescutti said he believes the initiative is having a ripple effect, freeing up ambulances and reducing emergency department wait times.

"And it should mean that there's more beds on wards because these patients aren't being hospitalized for frostbite and shigella and all sorts of other things that they're more prone to," Francescutti said.

Bridge Healing was recognized earlier this month by Technology Alberta, taking home the top prize for social innovation at the 2024 ASTech Awards.

Each building contains 12 single-occupancy units. Each room includes a bathroom with a shower, a bed, a desk and a kitchenette. On the main floor there is a large, shared living space and a full kitchen.

The design is based on the Eden Principle, a framework originally derived from elder care that aims to eliminate loneliness, helplessness and boredom. The idea is that by limiting each building to 12 adults, they are more likely to meaningfully connect and build mutually supportive relationships.

Francescutti said Bridge Healing community members have come together to cook, and organize events such as a karaoke night and an Oilers watch party. Three friends leaving Bridge Healing moved into the same building together.

"It's just beautiful watching how these people actually start getting better in front of your eyes."