Concert helps raise profile of homelessness issues

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A number of Edmonton's most well-known folk musicians will be performing Nov. 14 at a benefit concert designed to raise awareness about homelessness.

Proceeds from Homefest 2004 will go to help a variety of homeless-related programs. Scheduled performers include Karla Anderson, Chris Smith, Dennis Lakusta and Zoe Lewies.

Jim Gurnett, chair of the Homefest organizing committee, said "it's a chance to meet lots of great people that have been supportive of these things."

Last year's concert raised $6,000.

"The neat thing about it was people came to listen to the music, but in between performers we had people talking about housing problems and what had happened in their lives and why the government needed to fund housing more. So it was a good way to reach a bunch of people that had never heard about this stuff before," said Gurnett.

The money raised went to help out the winter emergency fund, which helps the homeless on days when it's very cold and the shelters are full. It hasn't yet been decided where this year's funds will go, however, one-third of the proceeds has been earmarked for a housing project in Africa.

Gurnett said he's happy about how the performers and the folk music community have rallied around this cause and that without them this event could not have happened.

"We have more people that want to perform than we can fit in. Just about everybody that performed last year wanted to come back again and we had to say no," said Gurnett. "I think it's tremendous because we give [the performers] a very small payment-nothing like what they'd earn if they were doing a regular paying show-yet they believe in this cause and they want to give their time to it. So we're really impressed by the commitment of the Edmonton folk community to this work."

Gurnett says government's response to the homelessness situation has been terrible.

"Both the federal and the Alberta governments have been absolutely miserly funding housing needs. We know that every day in Edmonton there are at least 2,000 people that don't know where they're going to be sleeping that night. This is crazy in a rich city like this," said Gurnett. "There's just been no government funding for years. The waiting lists, if you go to the organizations that provide housing, the waiting lists are years long to get into a decent place. I think it's absolutely unforgivable how absolutely uninterested government is in people without much money."

While the need for affordable housing continues to grow and with thousands of people living paycheque to paycheque, Gurnett said he's very pleased with the level of support from the public for this event, with many businesses agreeing, for free, to sell tickets.

"The Edmonton Folk Music Festival Association has been tremendous. A huge number of their volunteers that really know how to run an event like this volunteered last year and again this year. Northern Lights Folk Club is donating all the sound and light equipment for us, so we've had really good involvement with it."