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Advocates noticing rise in homelessness as city council set to discuss permanent emergency shelter

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There has been a significant increase in people living on the streets in downtown Regina. It comes as city council prepares to discuss the proposed location for a permanent emergency shelter.

“He wants to look after you,” Carmicheal Outreach staff member Chrysta Garner said while trying to coax a woman to stay inside.

The woman was sitting under a tarp in the pouring rain.

“Can we get you inside?” Garner asked.

Dozens are again living outdoors as government funding for Carmichael’s overnight warming shelter ran out at the end of May.

“Everybody’s trying to find last minute places to go,” Garner told CTV News. “The one in North Central has been closed down for a couple of months now and people are trying to navigate what to do here this summer.”

Day programs continue with coffee and snacks but staff at Carmichael Outreach wish they could do more.

“We would stay open as long as we could if funding was always available,” Garner said.

On June 12, Regina city council will discuss whether to make its temporary emergency shelter permanent.

The shelter currently operates out of the former location of Regina’s YMCA.

Two retail buildings on the 1400 block of Albert Street are reported to be the proposed new location.

The shelter will require a $7.5 million investment from three levels of government.

In a written statement, Regina City Manager Niki Anderson said the conversation in council will "be about whether the city should take on the financial cost to obtain ownership over an asset that will be used as a permanent emergency shelter.”

Miles Davis is a community member who plans to appear before council.

“As we’re standing around here looking around here it seems to me that there are a lot of people don’t have a roof over their head," he told CTV News. "What I want to do is I want to advocate for affordable housing in this city."

Right now, affordability appears to be moving in the wrong direction.

Average rents in Regina increased nearly 18 per cent last year – while Carmichael Outreach has noticed a lot of new people living on its front lawn.

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