Leading Sask. provincial parties share plans to address homelessness crisis

The leaders of Saskatchewan’s two major political parties are sharing their plans to tackle the growing homelessness crisis.

In the province’s largest city, the number of people sleeping rough is on pace to more than double over last year, according to the Saskatoon Fire Department.

A recent report from the fire department shows 683 people were "inadequately housed" between Jan. 1 and Sept. 15 this year. Over all of 2023, they counted 366 people in the same category in Saskatoon.

In Regina, over 100 volunteers gathered to conduct a point-in-time count of the city’s unhoused population at the beginning of October. The last count, in 2021, identified 488 unhoused people in the Queen City. Last week, organizers told CTV News the number was likely much higher than what volunteers could count on any given night.

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At a news conference in Kenaston on Friday, Saskatchewan Party leader Scott Moe said if re-elected, his party would focus on transitional housing to help get people into a more stable living situation.

“The goal isn't to fix the houses up and just have someone in them. There is a much broader conversation around how people will get into their own home and into a better opportunity in their community,” Moe said.

He said a Sask. Party government would also consider expanding the rent-to-own pilot program. The program was announced in mid-September. The pilot is set to take place in Regina’s North Central neighbourhood.

NDP leader Carla Beck said her party would restore government-owned housing units to increase the supply of affordable suites and pass legislation to limit how often and how much landlords can raise rent.

 

Beck would reverse Sask. Party changes to social assistance

Beck said an NDP government would also reverse changes made to the income assistance program, now known as Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS).

“People are finding themselves homeless or having to move because they simply can't afford the rent. The other piece of that was, reversing the changes to the SIS program, something that has exacerbated an already growing homelessness problem,” Beck said at a news conference in Saskatoon on Friday.

Prior to the implementation of the SIS program in 2019, the province would pay rent, utilities and damage deposits to a landlord on behalf of a recipient.

Currently, recipients can choose to receive the benefit directly or have the province pay bills on their behalf.

The Sask. Party says the changes allows people to manage their own money.

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“We want to make sure that we're allowing individuals the opportunity to be able to manage the money that they are allocated by the government. If they need assistance, that is available through social services,” Sask. Party candidate Paul Merriman said at a press conference in Prince Albert on Thursday.

Beck said the former government should have listened to the concerns about its changes to the program, expressed widely over the last few years by non-profits, landlords and the province’s urban municipalities.

“We had everyone from anti-poverty activists to landlords predicting, unfortunately, exactly what happened, that we'd see a rise in homelessness, that we'd see people evicted. They went ahead anyways,” Beck told media in Regina on Thursday.

The fire department's statistics show homeless encampments were found in nearly every residential neighbourhood in Saskatoon this year.