City council seeks long-term provincial and federal funding for youth transitional housing

Jul 30, 2026 | 4:06 PM

Red Deer city council has directed the Office of the Mayor and Council to advocate to the provincial and federal governments for sustainable, long-term funding for youth transitional housing initiatives in the community.

Councillor Bruce Buruma, who sits on the Housing and Homelessness Integration Committee (HHIC), said the committee was looking at some of the funding that was going to housing needs within the community when they were informed that 12 units that served young people in transitional housing lost their funding from the province.

This led the committee to allocate over $254,000 to the Youth Transitional Housing Program for the 2026/2027 funding period to ensure youth transitional housing will be funded for the next year.

He said it’s a heartbreaking situation.

“We ask council to up the advocacy on that, and this needs to be a permanent decision. It can’t go by the flow of funding cycles; it needs to be a clear need that’s in our community that needs to be fulfilled with that,” he said. “Some initial advocacy has been done, but we would like the voice of council to support this advocacy.”

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Bobby-Jo Stannard, director of community wellbeing for the City of Red Deer, said it’s important to prioritize as it’s the only program in Red Deer that does support youth in transitional housing.

“The decision was made by the committee to put towards a carry forward that was left over from the provincial government funding as well as some federal government funding to be able to support this particular program until March of 2027,” she said.

Stannard explained that was only a stopgap measure, so after the deadline next March, they will not have housing for youth.

They explained that conversations have been had with the Red Deer Homeless Foundation as well as with the provincial government.

Mayor Cindy Jefferies said there’s room for conversations around the Alberta Mid-sized Cities Caucus table as well as the Alberta Municipalities Safe and Healthy Communities Committee, which may be able to help.

by Ian Gustafson

City council seeks long-term provincial and federal funding for youth transitional housing

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