Saskatoon homeless count reveals 22 per cent are children and youth

Data in the City of Saskatoon’s 2025 point-in-time (PiT) count community report reveals that around 22 per cent of the city’s homeless are children and youth.

“The growing number of children that we noted in 2024 they’re largely in transitional housing,” Lesley Anderson, the city’s director of planning and development said.

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The city released the numbers in November 2025 from its count done last fall and identified 1,931 homeless people. Compared to 2024, the numbers are around 29 per cent higher.

Data showed that 725 were in the unsheltered category, while 151 people identified as living in houses and emergency shelters, 444 in transitional homes and 47 in systems like hospitals or correctional facilities.

On Monday, Anderson highlighted some of the PiT count’s key findings which revealed that nearly 83 per cent of respondents also identified as Indigenous.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a surprising number,” she said. “It really goes back to our understanding of the systems that have led to Indigenous homelessness, the residential schools and the impact of that to our communities.”

Findings of the report also revealed that most individuals have lived in the city for more than five years, while only 27 per cent said they have lived in the city for less.

“We do know that we are a hub for various services for all kinds of people,” she said.

Anderson said she thinks the 30 per cent increase in the city’s homeless population is related to income challenges as people struggle to meet their daily needs such as paying rent.

“We saw that as the driving factor for some of the increase we’ve seen recently,” noting she predicts the numbers recorded in 2022 of only 550 people was a significant undercount due to fewer locations and volunteers.

Anderson said the PiT count has driven the discussion around how urgent the city needs to respond to the rising issue of homelessness, adding that there are many community partners working actively in this area.

“If we don’t provide services of some type that people can meet their basic needs, that’s where we start to see more issues in public spaces on the street,” she said. “We need to do something that responds in a way that can help all of our community members.”

Last week, city council voted to relocate a drop-in centre for those experiencing homelessness from its previous location on Avenue C to Idylwyld Drive.