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Four people believed to be homeless have died or been found dead in Edmonton bus shelters in the past two weeks as cold weather moves into the city.

Edmonton Police Services (EPS) said paramedics and police officers responded when the bodies were discovered – two in the west side and two in the central part of the city. None of the deaths were criminal and no cause of death has been released.

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The first person, a woman, was pronounced dead Nov. 6 around 5 a.m. at a bus shelter near 178 Street and Callingwood Road in west Edmonton.

A week later, on November 13, two more people were found dead. Early that morning, around 5 a.m., police and paramedics found a woman dead in a bus shelter near 156 Street and 104 Avenue on the West Side.

Hours later, at 9 p.m., a man was pronounced dead at a bus shelter near the Royal Alexandra Hospital, near 106th Street and 111th Avenue.

A fourth person, a man, was found dead in a bus shelter around 5:30 a.m. Sunday near 97th Street and 118th Avenue.

Steve Bradshaw, president of the transit union ATU Local 569, told Postmedia that all four people who died are believed to be homeless. He was surprised when he first heard of the dead.

“They’re coming out of their camps and coming back into the system, it’s a seasonal change,” he said Tuesday. “They’re looking for shelter in our bus system to use their drugs and they’re looking for a safe place, I think.

“Which turns out not to be so safe, because they’re dead.”

Bus drivers do not have to stop and check that each person is spending time in a shelter. Many times the person is just sleeping. But when drivers suspect something is wrong, they often get out to check and call dispatch if something is wrong.

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“They don’t even expect to get anywhere near a sleeper on their bus. For the most part, we do – my approach to it and most operators will just stop five meters and yell at them until they get there,” said Bradshaw.

“If they have any inkling that there’s real trouble going down, they’ll stop.”

Belle Sidhu, spokeswoman for the City of Edmonton, wrote in a statement “Our thoughts are with those affected by these tragic incidents.”

Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) director of bus operations and security Ryan Birch said bus drivers followed proper protocols in these scenarios by calling dispatch for help.

He said there is peer-to-peer support for drivers to support each other through tough times, support from supervisors, chaplain services and employee and family assistance programs that offer confidential counselling.

Camp removals leave homeless exposed to cold: Advocate

Jim Gurnett, a lawyer with the Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (ECOHH), said the deaths are a clear expression of how dangerous life has become for people without a permanent place to live.

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The lawyers also tied a increase in frostbite deaths and injuries when moving from the camp.

“You have a policy that makes it absolutely impossible to set up a decent camp. The result is what we have now: people just huddled under almost nothing, under cardboard, under a tarp,” he said.

“They’re just lying in doorways and behind dumpsters and bus shelters with an empty tarp or a small blanket wrapped around them.”

The office of Alberta Seniors, Communities and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon did not immediately respond when asked if the Alberta government had confidence in its approach to supporting Edmonton’s homeless in light of the deaths.

Gurnett was at the Bissell Center on Tuesday for a memorial planned to honor people who have died from homelessness when a a fire broke out closing the building until further notice. He said closing the day shelter space, even temporarily, gives people one less place to escape the cold and get help.

ECOHH is holding a rally in the legislature on National Housing Day Saturday afternoon.

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@laurby

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