City of Regina to work on plan to end homelessness

Regina city councillors passed a motion on Monday to develop a plan to end homelessness in the city .

Tyler Gray ofCarmichaelOutreach thinks the plan will provide a vital framework for tackling this complex issue.

"Over the past four years, we have connected with many municipalities around Saskatchewan and Alberta to glean from their work towards ending homelessness," Gray said, recalling time spent researching inMedicine Hat, Alta., where chronic homelessness has reached functional zero.

Gray said in that city of about 70,000 people, the list of people requiring some type of shelter was only four people, three of which had been in the area for less than a week.

This has very little value in the broader scope of dealing with the homelessness problems in Regina.- Jim Elliott

"It was a moment of revelation, and a vision about what was possible and that was the end of homelessness in our community," Gray said.

But the motion wasn't sitting right for Jim Elliott, who noted a similar plan had been drafted a decade ago in the city's "A Home for All" report.

"This has very little value in the broader scope of dealing with the homelessness problems in Regina," Elliott said.

According to a 2015 report, there were 232 homeless people in Regina, but the number is likely higher, said Blair Roberts of the YMCA of Regina.

Roberts said the count did not account for the entire city, nor did it account for someone who might be sleeping on a friend or family member's couch on the night of the count, for example.

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