Report shows homelessness in Regina has quadrupled since 2015

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Regina’s most recent point-in-time count shows the rate of homelessness in the city has nearly doubled since 2021 and more than quadrupled over the last decade.

At least 824 individuals are living unhoused in Regina in 2024, compared to 488 individuals captured in the last point-in-time count three years ago, according to preliminary results released Wednesday.

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A summary of the data was presented by Namerind Housing Corporation, which co-ordinated the count with volunteers on Oct. 1 as part of the Reaching Home initiative (the federal government’s homelessness strategy).

“This is only a snapshot of a single night. It undercounts the actual number of homeless individuals,” said Lisa Workman, manager of Reaching Home at Namerind Housing. “But these numbers, they tell a sobering story.”

A point-in-time count reflects individuals staying in shelters, transitional housing or detox programs, those on the streets or living in hidden homelessness, like staying temporarily with friends or family.

Workman said the initial data shows a clear “historic rise” in both the number of people experiencing homelessness in Regina, but also a shift in the demographics and causes contributing to that rise.

She called it a “rapidly escalating crisis” exacerbated by continued gaps in Saskatchewan’s support net, resulting in a 255-per-cent increase in unhoused individuals since Regina’s first count in 2015.

“This is not just a housing crisis. It’s a health crisis, it’s an education crisis, it’s a crisis of inequality and systemic neglect,” she said.

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The report says that compared to previous data, more individuals are living completely unsheltered in Regina, with seniors and newcomers at increased risk of homelessness.

Of those encapsulated in the data, 63 per cent had no shelter available to them whatsoever and just 20 per cent were sheltered in an emergency bed that night. More than half were identified as being chronically homeless.

Seventy-five per cent identified as Indigenous. More than 70 per cent reported having substance use challenges and 54 per cent reported mental health conditions, but only 17 per cent were accessing mental health services.

Nearly half of those included in the count said they had interacted with Saskatchewan’s foster-care system and 23 per cent said they became homeless within three months of leaving care.

The report says impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to play a role, along with insufficient coverage under the provincial Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program and Regina’s 1.4 per cent housing vacancy rate.

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Namerind’s president and CEO, Robert Byers, reiterated the data shows a clear need for more integrated and low-barrier supports, provided through co-ordinated access and an Indigenous-led approach.

The Indigenous-owned organization, which operates affordable housing, is calling for more collaboration between all three levels of government and the private sector to “move beyond crisis management towards sustainable solutions,” said Workman.

“I don’t think it’s a Saskatchewan problem or a Regina or Saskatoon problem. It’s a Canadian problem and I think years of policy have put us where we are,” said Byers.

Saskatoon’s count, announced last week, also identified a staggering increase of 1,499 people living without permanent shelter in the city, almost three times the 550 people surveyed in 2022.

Regina’s last count took place in 2021, the same year more than 100 people began spending the nights together in an encampment in the Heritage Neighbourhood, putting the issue of homelessness back into the spotlight.

The 2021 count reported 488 individuals living in some form of houselessness, a significant jump from 286 individuals in 2018. Both cities are looking at utilizing federal funding from the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampment Initiative to address the issue.

A full report on the 2024 count’s results will be released in January.

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