Regina homeless situation remains urgent: advocate

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After police got a call about “unwanted guests” at a property on the 1500 block of Regina’s Angus Street, officers oversaw the dismantling of a small homeless camp on Wednesday.

Workers were waiting to build a fence at the property and, according to police, the camp was largely cleaned up after a couple of hours.

“The people in the encampment were co-operative,” stated an email from a Regina Police Service (RPS) spokesperson.

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So the camp’s residents are no longer on the Angus Street property, but where did they go?

“When you take down an encampment, it’s not going away. It’s hiding. And hiding, for some people, puts them in a far more dangerous situation,” said Alysia Johnson, who is a volunteer with local advocacy group Rally Around Homelessness.

Multiple homeless camps have popped up around Regina in recent years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. The largest and most visible was a downtown encampment in front of city hall that was in place for several weeks before local officials ordered its removal a little over a year ago.

When temporary camps are torn down, Johnson says people may turn to sleeping in dumpsters. They can even become injured through efforts to keep themselves from the public eye.

“We really have to confront this idea that if it’s hidden it’s somehow gone away,” she said.

While Johnson noted that another camp was recently set up near Holy Rosary Community School, no tents or other temporary structures were visible as of Thursday morning. The RPS spokesperson said he was not able to find any information about police shutting down a camp at that site.

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“Things are very challenging now, despite some progress in certain areas,” Johnson said.

She contends there’s a need for change in the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program (about which she previosuly submitted a letter to this newspaper). Despite efforts to find a permanent site for a low-barrier shelter, Johnson lamented that Regina city council voted down a proposed location in June.

The site of the camp taken down this week is only a short distance from the location that city administration had hoped council would approve for a permanent shelter.

Johnson said the whole saga, including Wednesday’s events, has left her wondering whether Regina “has grappled with how urgent and serious the situation is.”

While nighttime temperatures are still mild compared to the cold that awaits in the coming months, Johnson sought to highlight that warmer temperatures do not translate to comfort for those without shelter. She cited thundershowers in the past week, noting that people sleeping outside were likely left with no way to dry their clothes and no access to laundry or sanitation.

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Johnson suspects that when the city’s next “point-in-time” count is conducted, it will display a steep rise from the 488 individuals experiencing homelessness who were enumerated during the last count in 2021.

She said the longer that people are on the street, the more difficult it becomes to get back on their feet.

Johnson knows that opinions differ on how to best tackle the issue of homelessness. Opposing viewpoints can also cause tension, sometimes even between neighbours.

“Nobody expects people to agree on all of the solutions,” she said. “But not having a place for people to go is certainly not the solution. It’s a guaranteed fail.”

bharder@postmedia.com

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