Future uncertain for residents of bulldozed Regina homeless camp
The dwellings of around a dozen Regina residents experiencing homelessness were bulldozed after calls from the property owner.
“Feeling sad I guess, they’re tearing down half my home. But it happens,” Randy Netmaker, who lived at the encampment, told CTV News.
“They always push us Indians off to the side.”
Police, firefighters and a skid steer arrived at the encampment on the 1800 block of Halifax Street at around 8 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Netmaker has lived at the encampment for around six months. In that time he’s tried to get regular housing, but he says the process has been difficult.
“Every time I apply for a place, they seem to refuse us, I don’t know why,” he said.
“Maybe if I was by myself, but I’ve got my kids here. So I can’t just get my own place and forget about my kids, they need a place to live too.”
Groups that work with the unhoused stood by to lend assistance to those displaced from their homes.
Shylo Stevenson, a spokesperson for Warriors of Hope, told CTV News that many of the residents were trying to access housing but were facing barriers.
“We do have three that have no place to go right now, so we have them temporarily housed by mobile crisis for the day,” he said.
“Social services, we’ve been advised, is in an emergency meeting to discuss this and help navigate people through the system again where we will probably encounter those same barriers. No I.D, no bank account, no physical address.”
Netmaker is one of the residents who has housing for the moment, but he doubts anything will change in the long term.
“They said they are going to put me up in a hotel, probably just temporarily until they sweep it under the rug again like last year,” he said.
“They said they were going to get a place for homeless people but they never did.”
Several dozen people are living outdoors in the downtown area. The Heritage Neighbourhood Association calls it a crisis.
"This morning was really disheartening," Wendy Miller, executive director of the association, said. "We consider these tents a part of our community and neighbourhood as well and we worry about these humans so it’s somebody’s father, somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s grandma, grandpa, kokum, moshum and they’re people."
By the end of the day, the site had been completely cleared. The former residents will spend a day or two at a hotel with an expectation that they find housing quickly.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Israel gave U.S. last-minute warning about drone attack on Iran, Italian foreign minister says at G7
The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received 'last minute' information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, but didn't participate in the apparent attack, officials said.
After hearing thousands of last words, this hospital chaplain has advice for the living
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
'It was all my savings': Ontario woman loses $15K to fake Walmart job scam
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
Families to receive Canada Child Benefit payment on Friday
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
After COVID, WHO defines disease spread 'through air'
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
DEVELOPING G7 warns of new sanctions against Iran as world reacts to apparent Israeli drone attack
Group of Seven foreign ministers warned of new sanctions against Iran on Friday for its drone and missile attack on Israel, and urged both sides to avoid an escalation of the conflict.
BREAKING Iran fires at apparent Israeli attack drones near Isfahan air base and nuclear site
An apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defences at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan, an assault coming in retaliation for Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.
Ottawa to force banks to call carbon rebate a carbon rebate in direct deposits
Canadian banks that refuse to identify the carbon rebate by name when doing direct deposits are forcing the government to change the law to make them do it, says Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.