“We’re seeing the effects of what happens when you aren’t listening to housing advocates, and it’s systemic,” said Madi Massier of The Hawk Principle.
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Madi Massier “wasn’t surprised” that a recent point-in-time count of individuals living unhoused in Regina had doubled since 2022.
As someone who has worked in various frontline positions, including current roles as social co-ordinator and co-director at The Hawk Principle, Regina’s homeless crisis is well known to Massier and anyone else offering boots-on-the-ground support.
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However, seeing those numbers increase 255 per cent since 2015 has further sparked Massier’s concern that government policy is not working to keep people out of such vulnerable positions.
“That should be very alarming to people, the fact that there is that many unhoused people,” Massier said after the preliminary stats were released Wednesday.
Regina’s 2024 count included at least 824 individuals, almost double the last count in 2022. Saskatoon recorded nearly 1,500 people, which triples a 2021 survey.
Such counts only represent a snapshot of one night in either city, but they’re often used to demonstrate the severity of the situation.
Massier said the staggering rise in Saskatchewan’s numbers could have been stymied a decade ago if governments had proactively invested in a housing-first model at that time.
“It’s now escalated to a point where it’s so severe it almost feels like there’s nothing we can do,” Massier said. “We’re seeing the effects of what happens when you aren’t listening to housing advocates, and it’s systemic.”
Massier pointed to initiatives that have operated successfully, such as the Housing First Program run by Phoenix Residential Society. Its preliminary data in 2017 showed that, of the 36 individuals who were housed in the program’s first year, zero returned to homelessness.
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Phoenix Residential and YWCA Regina estimated that the program led to nearly $2 million in savings on government-funded services like hospital admissions, emergency calls and detox visits.
Peter Gilmer of the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry agreed that people need a strong social safety net and housing-first supports to effectively change their situation.
He said Saskatchewan is behind in both.
“One person unhoused is too many,” Gilmer noted. “To see 800-plus is an outrage.”
Clients in Regina and Saskatoon are struggling under insufficient income and housing programs. Gilmer said the issue has been growing in communities outside the largest cities as well.
He repeated the same call that advocates have been making since 2019. As a start, he’s asking for changes to the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program to provide sufficient shelter benefits.
“The SIS program has wreaked all kinds of havoc,” said Gilmer. “It isn’t just a question of poverty. It’s a question of deep poverty for folks that are on this program.”
The Hawk Principle incorporated last fall as a mutual aid co-op that was borne out of frustration with the way Saskatchewan’s system works, said Massier. Founders wanted to bridge a gap between institutions and other services to foster connection and take a more human approach to help people feel comfortable and valued.
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“We as co-directors had been through the system, been so burdened and hard done by the system, that it was just time for something new,” Massier said.
The group delivers outreach, meal programs and open social contact, all with the principles of “healing, wellness and kindness” to help create a path for people to rise above their circumstances.
While homelessness grows as a political issue, Massier said the public conversation has begun to leave out so much of the humanity that exists behind numbers like point-in-time counts.
Massier urged the public to think about all 824 unhoused individuals in Regina as people, each with their own story to tell.
“That’s someone’s family member — their daughter, a parent,” Massier added. “I know it shouldn’t have to be about proximity, but it kind of is. This could be anyone.
“At the end of the day, these are people’s lives.”
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