A report on the social health of Edmonton and its neighbourhoods released Thursday shows the city has lost gains made during economic boom times.

The report, Tracking the Trends, publishes a social health index for Edmonton, factoring in a variety of data including income, voter turn out, and suicide and bankruptcy rates. The index has been on a steady increase since 1996.

"This steady improvement of the social index is definitely at risk, in fact, to the point where we're likely to see a decline in 2009 in the social well-being of Edmontonians overall," Kolkman said.

The report, published by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, also shows the number of people collecting EI over the last year has nearly tripled, there are 19 per cent more social assistance recipients, and food bank use has increased 40 per cent.

"A lot of people are exhausting their EI benefits and may have to, if they can't find work, may have to turn to social assistance," said John Kolkman, co-author of the report and the council's research and policy analysis co-ordinator.

"These are some of the real consequences of the recent downturn in the economy that we are going to have to grapple with as a community," Kolkman said.

The 128-page report follows trends in population growth, education, employment, wages and the cost of living in Edmonton.

Unemployment, cost of living increasing

It reveals that although Edmonton's unemployment decreased 2.4 percentage points between 1998 and 2008, those gains have since been lost. Edmonton's unemployment rate jumped 0.5 percentage points month over month to seven per cent in July — the city's highest level since 1996, but still below the national average of 8.6 per cent and the provincial average of 7.2 per cent.

In its 10th edition, the report also shows most indicators for cost of living are up: The cost of food, rent and housing have been steadily rising in Edmonton.

Between 2000 and 2008, the cost of a nutritious food basket for a family of four has increased $34.36 per week, or $1,786.72 per year.

Similarly, between 1998 and 2008, the consumer price index in Edmonton has increased 35 per cent, while the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the city rose 87.7 per cent in the same 10-year period.

Although apartment vacancy rates have nearly doubled between 2008 and 2009, average rents continue to rise.

Vulnerable neighbourhoods at highest risk

Kolkman said that generally, conditions are getting worse for the most vulnerable Edmontonians. He said the most at-risk communities are still susceptible, notably neighbourhoods in the north central and far north east, a few in the west of the city and a couple in the southeast. These are neighbourhoods with the lowest household incomes and the highest unemployment rates, he said.

Any improvements made during the boom times are quickly disappearing in this recession, he said, hoping governments and social agencies use the report to recognize which neighbourhoods to focus their resources and funding toward.

"There's this tendency that governments have to cut back during times of economic recession, but when people are already facing a loss of income from the marketplace, that's the absolutely worst thing that government can do," Kolkman said.

"I'm very concerned that we take this view that we have to balance the budget at all costs, that there's going to be a lot of vulnerable Edmontonians that are hurt as result of those kinds of decisions that are being made by government."