More than 300 unhoused patients have moved from Edmonton emergency rooms directly to transitional housing since the launch of a unique program in March 2023.

Work is currently underway to expand the Bridge Healing transitional accommodation program, with two additional buildings expected to be commissioned late next year.

“It makes a big difference in the lives of the patients we serve. It reduces emergency department visits,” said Dr. Louis Francescutti, an emergency 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 University of Alberta students who took Francescutti’s advocacy course. It opened as a partnership between Alberta Health Services and Jasper Place Wellness Centre.

The students’ concept was simple: Ask homeless emergency room patients if they want a chance to start over.

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

But only if there is space.

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

The only time Bridge Healing’s 36 beds are not fully occupied is when someone leaves the facility.

“We will probably need at least 100 additional 12-bed buildings, or 1,200 additional beds, because the demand is quite high,” Francescutti said.

Bridge Healing began with a 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, thanks in large part to $815,000 in grants and land from the City of Edmonton.

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

Bridge Healing also relies heavily on private donations. Construction company Qualico recently raised $180,000 at a golf tournament and the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation provided seed capital to launch the pilot project.

Recovery Alberta, which pays operational costs, told CBC News it does not have data showing whether the program reduces repeat trips to emergency rooms for unhoused people.

A provincial spokesperson said an assessment will be completed by next April to inform next year’s funding.

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

He said Edmonton’s experience is consistent with those studies. He said participants who in the past have visited the emergency room dozens or even hundreds of times are making far fewer trips.

Francescutti said he believes the initiative has a ripple effect, freeing up ambulances and reducing emergency room wait times.

“And that should mean there are more beds on the wards because these patients are not being hospitalized for frostbite and shigella and all sorts of other things that they are more prone to,” Francescutti said.

Bridge Healing was recognized earlier this month by Technology Alberta, winning the top prize for Social Innovation at the 2024 ASTech Awards.

Each building contains 12 individual dwellings. Each room includes a bathroom with a shower, a bed, a desk and a kitchenette. On the ground floor there is a large common living space and a fully equipped kitchen.

The design is based on the Eden Principle, a framework originally derived from aged 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 make meaningful connections and build mutually supportive relationships.

Francescutti said members of the Bridge Healing community came together to cook and host events such as karaoke night and an Oilers watch party. Three friends leaving Bridge Healing moved into the same building together.

“It’s just beautiful to see how these people start to improve before your eyes.”