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Earlier this week the City of Saskatoon’s 2024 Point-in-Time count revealed there are at least 1,499 homeless people in the city, and Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) Chief Mark Arcand believes that 90 per cent of them are First Nations.
In 2022 550 homeless people were counted in the city.
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Arcand said the 2024 number is higher than what he was anticipating.
“I was estimating around 800 people,” said Arcand. “I’m really shocked about these numbers because they’ve actually tripled.”
Arcand said the affordability crisis has played a big part in the increase of homeless people.
“We see people can’t afford rent now, (under) the SIS (Saskatchewan Income Support) program, (and) the SAID (Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability) program,” said Arcand. “(They can’t afford) the cost of food — we have elderly people in our EWC (Emergency Wellness Centre) that can’t afford any of those living on a fixed income.”
Arcand also said STC is also seeing people travelling into Saskatoon from First Nation communities.
“They have lack of housing in their community, they have lack of jobs, they have lack of everything,” said Arcand.
“So they’re coming to the city for a better life and they have no opportunities because there’s no actual quality housing in place.”
Arcand said quality housing isn’t just putting someone in a house, it is putting them somewhere where there are supports in place for them.
“If they (the people) have their crisis, their mental health, their addictions that aren’t taken care of, they fail in that house,” said Arcand.
“In our programs .. when somebody goes into our second location of Kotawan, we have staff, we have security in those buildings.”
Arcand also said people there also have to attend day programs once or twice a week.
Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block has also proposed a task force to work with homeless people but Arcand said it should be run by First Nations.
“It has to be led by First Nation people, it’s our people,” said Arcand.
The city has also announced that the 18 month temporary downtown shelter along Pacific Avenue is set to open in March of 2025 with 35 new beds, as well as a six-phase two-year program to address the concerns around encampments and bring more permanent spaces for homeless people to gather.
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