This City In Canada Might Be The First To End Homelessness

The Albertan town is fulfilling a promise to their community.

In 2009, the town of Medicine Hat in Alberta pledged to eliminate homelessness with an ambitious 5-year-plan.

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Today, they claim they've met their goal — thereby becoming the first municipality in Canada to end homelessness.

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"We're pretty much able to meet that standard today," Mayor Ted Clugston said in a radio interview.

He explained that “our definition of ending homelessness is we say that within 10 days of us recognizing that you don’t have a place to live, we will find you one.”

The mayor believes that no one should spend more than 10 days on the streets or in emergency housing. If you have no place to go, you will be given housing.

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"That doesn't mean an emergency shelter, or couch-surfing," he expained. "It means your own place."

The mayor himself was initially opposed to the plan, and had once said, "Why should we ... give a home to these people who are stoned or alcoholics?"

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But he now admits that these arguments were "dumb":

"I even said some dumb things like, 'Why should they have granite countertops when I don't,'" he recalled in the same radio interview. "However, I've come around to realize that this makes financial sense."

"This is the cheapest and the most humane way to treat people," he now concludes.

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According to Clugston, it costs about $20,000 a year to put someone in housing. It can cost the city up to $100,000 a year if they're on the street.

"This is the cheapest and the most humane way to treat people."