More than 1,000 people in Saskatchewan have nowhere to call home, according to the latest “point-in-time” homeless counts for the province’s two biggest cities.
In Regina, frustration surrounding homelessness was at an all-time high this year.
It came to a boiling point when an encampment in front of city hall was torn down this summer.
The camp stood for just over five weeks and was the site of 80 tents, most of them housing multiple people.
Regina Fire and Protective Services (RFPS) made the call to dismantle the camp.
It sparked frustration among advocates who work closely with the community.
Houselessness advocate Shiloh Stevenson says there are a lot of contributing factors that have been identified.
“We can speak to the intergenerational traumas, which lead to addiction and unhealthy lifestyles, and that factoring into people’s physical health, mental health,” he said. “So, we have poor mental health or lifestyle choices like high-risk lifestyles, and they all relay back to our intergenerational traumas.”
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Stevenson, who is also a community outreach and support co-ordinator, offers his time at the Queen City Wellness Pharmacy, where western and traditional medicines are used to help cater to the community.
“We go onto land at the base camps. We make ceremony accessible to our relatives (and) we make smudging available daily,” he said. “We connect our resources like in our traditional ways, in a safe environment to our people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.”
Chrysta Garner, the development co-ordinator for Carmichael Outreach, says the major barrier they saw this year for the houseless folks who were trying to seek help was not having the proper ID to get the services they required.
“Whether it be a driver’s licence, a treaty card, a health card, just the major documentation that they need, just you need even to get a bank card, you need proper identification,” Garner said. “You can’t cash a cheque, or you can’t receive money from an outside source without having that proper identification. So that was a huge barrier.”
In Saskatoon, the number of encampments jumped from 512 in 2022 to nearly 600 by the end of August of this year.
According to a report called “Vital Focus on Homelessness in Saskatoon,” one of the biggest barriers to accessing a home is money.
Others include access to health supports, needed harm reduction supports and disability accessibility.
It’s those barriers that advocates say stand between people and getting help.
Two new emergency shelters are on the books for Saskatoon.
“This is welcoming all around, it will have an impact in the community, but I do believe there’s more discussion to occur, there’s more work to be done,” Saskatoon fire Chief Morgan Hackl said.
Service workers and advocates continue to call on all levels of government to work with them on solutions.
“We’ve been meeting with different city officials, different provincial officials. And they’re listening and it’s slowly taking place,” Stevenson said. “Knowing where we’re going for our information, whether it’s a book or lived experience. That’s where we need the key stakeholders in this discussion on people in addiction, mental health, struggling and like that level of houselessness to speak up.”
Katie Harvey, a social worker and also a houselessness advocate, says it would be more beneficial for the provincial leaders to meet with the front-line staff and see what’s actually happening.
“See the barriers that we face daily, not just for ourselves as the workers, but for the community,” Harvey said. “You can read our annual reports, but they’re not going to actually reflect properly of what we’re seeing … our rental market increase inflation this year, gas prices, lower wages, not enough money in our social income programs. I think that more people turn to living in the streets and accessing resources that they could.”
The Saskatchewan government announced more supports for homelessness and addictions in October.
More than $40 million will be allocated for things like supportive housing and emergency shelters.
Another $49 million will be distributed over five years for addictions treatment spaces and an improved intake system.
— with files from Katherine Ludwig
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