Several Regina city councillors are calling for greater action from the province in addressing homelessness. In an open letter penned by Ward 6 Coun. Victoria Flores, the representatives called for three items: Flores says the letter was sent to the Ministry of Social Services Wednesday morning. It was signed by councillors David Froh (Ward 3), Sarah Turnbull (Ward 5), Shobna Radons (Ward 7), Shanon Zachidniak (Ward 8) and Jason Mancinelli (Ward 9). According to Flores, the city’s Community Well-being team has provided the ministry with a list of roughly 20 people from the Core Community Park (also known as Pepsi Park) encampment who have been assessed and are ready to move into housing. However, Flores claims the city hasn’t received any meaningful updates from the ministry about that list as of Wednesday morning. “When the city raised the need for space with your ministry, the response was to ask the city to find a building. No commitment came with it,” the letter read. “I met with volunteers from the encampment this week. What they asked for was addictions support, health care on site, and social services on site on a regular basis until people are connected. Not one of those things is a municipality’s to give.” Flores adds that the city ended up taking on that work anyway, despite not having the resources to do so. “Nobody wants encampments. Not the people living in them. Not the families and businesses nearby. Not the workers who show up at those sites every day,” Flores wrote. “We take you at your word that no one in government wants this either. But the reality is that we see the number of unhoused folks and encampments growing dramatically.” Flores says it was important for the province to fund housing first, as those with high acuity needs such as mental health and addictions issues require a stable environment. “This is a model we know works. It reduces the emergency service costs that homelessness generates, and it gives people the foundation to move through the housing continuum toward being independently housed,” she said. She says the rates for the SIS and SAID programs need to increase to more accurately reflect the rising cost of living. Regarding the third request, Flores says it was systemic failure for people to be discharged from health, social and correctional services only for them to end up with nowhere to go. “We are asking for a cross-ministry discharge protocol within six months, and for the province to report on how many people leave provincial care into homelessness,” she wrote. Roughly 70 per cent of Regina’s homeless population is Indigenous as of the most recent point-in-time count. In light of this, Flores says the leadership of Indigenous-led housing organizations is paramount — as many, such as Namerind Housing Corporation — have already drafted plans to end homelessness in the city by 2030 and just need the funding and authority to see the plan through. CTV News has reached out to the Government of Saskatchewan for comment.
