Red Deer conducts 2026 Point in Time Homeless Count

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“This count brings community organizations together to gather information that helps us identify needs, track changes over time and make informed decisions about programs and services.”

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Red Deer conducts 2026 Point in Time Homeless Count

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The city explains that this year’s count will focus on enumeration, meaning individuals experiencing homelessness will be counted but not surveyed.

Under the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home: Canada’s Homelessness Strategy, communities are conducting annual counts, with more detailed surveys every three years. Red Deer’s next combined count and survey will take place in 2027.

The 2026 count will include people experiencing homelessness in several settings:

• Unsheltered locations: Individuals staying in known encampments and other public areas where people experiencing homelessness are known to gather.
• Sheltered locations: Individuals staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing, detox facilities and recovery centres who have no fixed address.
• Public systems: Data from RCMP holding cells and provincial systems will be used to enumerate individuals experiencing homelessness in health and justice facilities, as well as those staying in hotels or motels with financial assistance from the Government of Alberta.

Also involved in the count this week were the Red Deer Homeless Foundation and social work students from RDP.

For a second year, enumerators offered the people they encountered tobacco ties, with guidance from Raye St. Denys, who runs the Indigenous organization Shining Mountains Living Community Services. They were also offered warm socks, hand warmers, and snacks.

“Community collaboration is essential to this work,” said Stannard. “Our partners bring valuable experience, knowledge and relationships that help us better understand homelessness in Red Deer and the needs of people experiencing it.”

Results are not anticipated immediately.

Last year, the count was 645, down slightly from the year prior.

For more information about the Point-in-Time Homeless Count and to view previous reports, visit reddeer.ca/pitcount.

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Next week, rdnewsNOW will publish a special four-part series on homelessness.

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