City council announces plan to end homelessness in Regina

Regina city council has unanimously approved a motion focused on announcing a funding plan to end homelessness in the city.

The approved motion called for $5.5 million annually in a housing-first supportive model in the city.

Ward 6 Coun. Dan LeBlanc spoke highly of the motion prior to the vote, urging its importance to the community.

“The city committed to a five-year plan to end homelessness in 2018,” he said. “We are not on track to meet that goal. Instead, there are twice as many homeless folks today as there were when the plan was adopted.

“It’s time to make good on our commitment. We need to put our money where our mouth is.”

LeBlanc stressed the need for the motion to be discussed in the 2023 budget proposal and what the cost would be for taxpayers in Regina.

Ward 2 Coun. Bob Hawkins also expressed firm support for the motion.

“I will support this because I think it sends a powerful signal on council’s commitment to community safety and well-being means something and will mean something when we go to the difficult task at budget time of finding the resources to make that meaning real,” he said. “I also think we’re in a unique position to set an example to other communities in this country.”

Hawkins says it’s important to send a message to other governments, at the provincial level, that municipal governments need more support to tackle the issues surrounding homelessness.

“This municipal government will not be terrorized by a threat of a province that continuously downloads and this motion is the proof of that,” he said.

“Regina will be a better place because of this motion and I am happy to support it.”

Mayor Sandra Masters believes funding for housing will set people on the right path towards a better life.

“There are a few people, (a) very small percentage, that choose to live in overnight shelters and don’t want the obligation of living in a house,” she said. “But everybody else gets access to a home, kind of without conditions. It’s basically low-barrier housing.

“So when you get them into a home, that’s actually how you build a relationship for outreach, for services to health care, for healing through mental health, wound care, medication management. It’s really about getting folks into homes so they can stabilize and access other services.”

When Masters was asked where the money would come from for the project, she said it will have to be heavily discussed in the months ahead.

“When the city steps forward and becomes part of the solution, the partners show up. So both the province and the federal government in two separate instances have stepped forward and contributed with the city and with community-based organizations to actually provide this type of housing,” she said.

“I think the timeline is ongoing because what creates homelessness is very complex and is a complicated series of events for individuals. It’s unique to each individual.

“So the plan to end homelessness in terms of funding it, I think, (depends on) if we see can see improvement every year if we can provide more low-barrier housing.”

In total, 15 delegations talked during Wednesday’s council meeting about the importance of targeted funding to address homelessness in Regina.

Council plans on discussing the motion again in December.