Edmonton’s 10-year effort to end homelessness fell far short of its targets on building the type of housing that can keep someone struggling with chronic alcohol and substance abuse off the street.

In a new report on Edmonton’s “hard-to-house population,” city officials say people who have been living on the street a long time often need more support to hold down a place, the normal practice of finding them an apartment and having a social worker or other support visit occasionally doesn’t work.

That type of housing is called permanent supportive housing, and often comes with 24-hour nursing staff or other care. But while Edmonton said it would need 1,000 units of permanent supportive housing in 2009, when it passed the 10-year plan to end homelessness, only 213 units have since been built.

The report on Edmonton’s hard to house comes from the Office of the Mayor and is heading to council for debate Tuesday morning. The report says that failure to follow through on targets means thousands of people sit on waiting lists for housing.

The result can be seen in last year’s homeless count. Seventy per cent of the 1,752 people counted as homeless were chronically homeless, also called the hard to house.

“Clearly, in order to end homelessness in Edmonton and achieve the aims of the 2007 report, we need to redouble our efforts for the benefit of hard-to-house homeless Edmontonians,” says the report, estimating an investment of $21 million a year for 10 years will be required.

Mayor Don Iveson is scheduled to speak to the report Tuesday morning, asking his council colleagues to direct city staff to work with other orders of government on an affordable housing strategy.