City council approves motion to fully fund a plan to end homelessness

The City of Regina addressed homelessness in a long council meeting on Wednesday.

A motion put forward called for the approval of $5.5 million dollars per year in targeted and budgeted funding for a housing-first supportive model in the city.

The motion was passed unanimously looking for budgetary housing funding in 2023.

Coun. Daniel Leblanc said it was a big relief to have the motion pass the way it did.

“I certainly didn’t think it would pass unanimously,” Leblanc said. “I think that came down to the community who came out to support it.”

Twenty-one delegations registered to share their opinions with council about the city’s homelessness problem. Fifteen of those delegations were able to give their opinion to council.

Shelley Sayer works for Ranch Ehrlo Society, which is a business that provides affordable housing. She said listening to the 15 delegations was inspiring.

“I felt really proud of this city and the people that are on the front lines working day in and day out to help solve this problem,” Sayer said.

Peter Gilmer is an advocate with the Regina anti-poverty ministry and said that $5.5 million appears to be a large number but needs to be viewed as a cost-saving initiative.

“There's so many costs that are related to homelessness, whether we're looking at emergency services like fire and police where we're looking at higher costs at a municipal level,” Gilmer said. “Permitting homelessness is actually far more expensive than moving in this way to end it.”

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Most of the delegations were quick to reference a point-in-time survey that was conducted in 2021.

It showed that 488 people were experiencing homelessness in Regina at that time, a significant rise from 286 in 2018.

Sayer added the city had a five-year plan to address homelessness which was introduced in 2018.

The five-year plan has existed for four years now, and there are more homeless [people] today than in 2018,” Sayer said. “We need to do more, we now know that dedicated and affordable housing across the continuum is key.”

A three-layered key that needs all levels of government to be involved.

“We are asking the city to step up, the plan includes a call for all levels of government to participate. So far that hasn’t happened,” Sayer said.

Mayor Sandra Masters is hoping that once the city becomes involved the federal government will be able to provide more funding and the provincial government will be able to direct its funding to the right places.

“I think we have one of the most philanthropic communities in the country and are without information about where to direct resources and where we need outcomes and impacts,” Masters said. “Then everybody's kind of shooting in the dark and it's very disorganized.”

The motion to end homelessness now will not be discussed at council until December when council members will be able to debate the draft budget circulated through 2023.