Advocates for Edmonton's homeless are praising the federal budget after the Harper government renewed funding for a housing program.

Ottawa promised to provide $119 million each year for five years to help homeless people with mental illness or addictions move from shelters into homes.

"We really focus on the chronically homeless and the outcomes have been amazing," said Susan McGee, CEO of Edmonton Homeward Trust.

"There's about 2,300 people that have been housed since the beginning of the program and approximately 80 per cent of them have retained their housing so its been very successful.

"It's the right approach to end homelessness and this is going to help us continue to do that work."

Edmonton's share of the money works out to $6.5 million each year.

The Homelessness Partnering Strategy was set to expire in 2014.

"Some of the projects that we work on it takes three years to really realise a new capital project, so being able to plan around that is also very critical," said McGee.

Edmonton is in year four of a 10-year plan to end homelessness in the city by 2019.

With files from CBC's Gareth Hampshire