Monday, Oct. 23, 2023
Poverty and Houselessness: Summary
On October 23, 2023, Florence Stratton, peace and justice activist, addressed houselessness in Regina. Eighty percent of the houseless in Regina are Indigenous, a product of colonialism, breaking up Indigenous families through colonial strategies including residential schools and the sixties scoop. Florence explained the change from the term homelessness to houselessness. This land is the home of Indigenous peoples but they have no shelter, no house. She provided ideas of what to seek to end houselessness when corresponding with all three levels of government —municipal, provincial, and federal. She encouraged individuals and community organizations to engage with all three levels of governments to ensure that no people in Canada suffer health issues or die from lack of shelter.
Poverty and Houselessness: Summary
On October 23, 2023, Florence Stratton, peace and justice activist, addressed houselessness in Regina. Eighty percent of the houseless in Regina are Indigenous, a product of colonialism, breaking up Indigenous families through colonial strategies including residential schools and the sixties scoop. Florence explained the change from the term homelessness to houselessness. This land is the home of Indigenous peoples but they have no shelter, no house. She provided ideas of what to seek to end houselessness when corresponding with all three levels of government —municipal, provincial, and federal. She encouraged individuals and community organizations to engage with all three levels of governments to ensure that no people in Canada suffer health issues or die from lack of shelter.
Monday, Oct. 23, 2023
Poverty and Houselessness: Presentation
INTRODUCTION
On July 28th, when the tent encampment at City Hall was taken down by Regina Police Service, I was lucky. I had a house and a bed to go to.
Actually, now that I think about it, it wasn’t so much luck. I have both white privilege and class privilege. Together they almost ensure that I will have a roof over my head—that I will never be houseless.
The people living in tents at the City Hall encampment lacked one or both of these privileges. And so the majority of them had nowhere to go. They have since then been chased from one tent encampment to another and left to wander the streets and back alleys of Regina. I dedicate this talk to them.
A big thanks to the Superannuated Teachers of Saskatchewan for inviting me to speak to you about houselessness in Regina. As some of you may remember, I spoke to you on this same subject a little under three years ago. Since then, as you have probably observed, things have only gotten worse.
NUMBERS
Let’s start with the numbers. How many unhoused people are there in Regina?
Every few years, cities across Canada do what is called a Point-in-Time Count—often referred to as a PiT Count. Here’s how it works:
On a particular night, volunteers go out around the city and count all the unhoused people they encounter. Added to this figure is the number of people staying in shelters on that particular night.
Regina’s most recent PiT Count took place in September 2021. 488 individuals were found to be experiencing houselessness.
The count before that was held in April 2018. 286 people were found to be unhoused. Do the math and the 2021 count indicates a 59% increase in the number of people who are unhoused in Regina.
Point-in-Time counts obviously have their limitations. How many unhoused people do the volunteers miss, for example? And what about all the folks who happen to be inside on that particular night?
The figure provided in 2019 in The Plan To End Homelessness In Regina, is likely more accurate. According to this document, 2,200 people were houseless in Regina in 2018. That number will only have grown.
Whatever figure we accept, the numbers are horrendous. Think of all the misery and suffering!
Regina is a rich city, in a rich province, in a rich country! No one should be houseless in Regina!
STARTLING FIGURE
Next question: Who is unhoused in Regina? In other words, what are the demographics of Regina’s houseless population?
Here’s a startling figure: 80% of unhoused people in Regina are Indigenous.
Why are so many Indigenous People houseless in Regina? The short answer to this question is settler colonialism. Or, as Jody Wilson-Raybould put it in her recent book True Reconciliation, houselessness amongst Indigenous People is one of the “symptoms of colonialism” (272).
CLEARING THE PLAINS 1878
Much of the next part of my presentation is based on James Daschuk’s ground-breaking book, Clearing the Plains, first published in 2013. If you haven’t already read it, I urge you to do so.
Daschuk teaches at the University of Regina.
As Daschuk puts it “In the mid-nineteenth century, peoples on the plains were perhaps the tallest and best-nourished population in the world. By the early 1880s, the nutritional advantage provided by the [buffalo] herds [was] gone for good” (100). The stage was thus set for the next phase of the colonization process.
I was taught in school that European settlement of the Canadian west was very peaceful, unlike that of the American west. This is a myth. Erased from this version of history is, among other things, the policy of deliberate starvation implemented by the government of John A. Macdonald in 1878: withholding food from Indigenous Peoples living across the plains, including right here where Regina is located, until they moved onto the tiny reserves the government had carved out for them.
The goal of the starvation policy was to clear the plains of Indigenous Peoples and thus to make way for the railroad and white settlement. In Macdonald’s words: “We are doing all we can by refusing food until the Indians are on the verge of starvation.” Thousands of Indigenous Peoples died as a result of this policy.
In other words, as Daschuk’s book reveals, Canada was founded on the genocide of Indigenous Peoples.
LAND ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
From this perspective, it might be useful to consider the land acknowledgements that so many of us who are settlers give at the beginning of events we are hosting. These land acknowledgements usually go something like this:
“This event is taking place on Treaty 4 territory, the original lands of the Nehiyawak, Anisinapek, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.”
A more honest and historically accurate land acknowledgement would go something like this:
This event it taking place on Treaty 4 territory, land stolen from Indigenous Peoples.
Or, as Canadian singer Jully Black put it when she sang “O Canada” at a NBA All-Star game earlier this year: “O Canada, our home on native land.”
ANOTHER STARTLING FIGURE
Here’s another startling figure.
The life expectancy of an unhoused person in Canada is 39 years. And so the genocide against Indigenous Peoples in Canada continues!
CLEARING THE PLAINS 2023
We might think about the take down by Regina Police Service of the tent encampment at City Hall in this context. How about we call it “Clearing the Plaza.”
There are many parallels between the clearing of the plains in 1878, along with colonial policies that followed, and the clearing of the plaza in 2023. For example: After the camp was taken down, a fence went up around the City Hall plaza, with NO TRESPASSING signs all along it. What it put me in mind of was the Pass System, implemented by the Canadian government in 1885, after Indigenous Peoples on the prairies had been forced onto reserves by the Government of Canada’s starvation policy. Under the pass system, Indigenous People could not leave their reserve without obtaining the permission of the Indian Agent.
The purpose of the Pass System was to keep Indigenous People out of white space. Though it never became law, the Pass System lasted until the 1940s. And perhaps in another guise it is still with us today. Look at what happened to Colten Boushie when he ventured onto white property.
And who was the fence that went up around city hall designed to keep out?
TERM ‘HOUSELESSNESS’
I thought we might pause for a moment and consider terminology. When I spoke to you in 2021, I used the word “homeless” to describe people living on the street because they do not have a dwelling place or permanent shelter. Today, I am using the words “houseless” or “unhoused.” Why the change in terminology?
It was Shylo Stevenson who explained it to me. As some of you may remember, Shylo was much in the media when Camp Hope was established in Pepsi Park in October of 2021, as he was one of the main volunteers.
Here’s Shylo’s explanation: Regina is situated on Indigenous land. An Indigenous person cannot be homeless on their own land. That land is their home. But they can be houseless or unhoused—that is lacking a roof over their head or any permanent kind of shelter.
The terms “houseless” and “unhoused” are now being used all over Canada and in the US too. A more general reason for the shift in terminology is that the term “homeless” has become stigmatizing, as it perpetuates negative stereotypes about people who lack permanent shelter. You might consider what image comes to mind when we hear the term “the homeless.”
SOLUTIONS: ENDING HOUSELESSNESS
So that’s a lot of background information. What do we do with it? What can we do to end houselessness in Regina?
All three levels of government have to act. So too does each of us.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
I’m going to start with the federal government.
At the same time, it should be noted that the federal government has, in recent years, provided some funding for low-income housing projects. Two of them are in Regina.
In 2021, the City received $7.75 million under the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative to build a minimum of 29 new permanent supportive affordable housing units. The building, located on North Broad Street, is now ready for occupancy and will be operated by Regina Treaty Status Indian Services—or RTSIS.
Earlier this year, the City received $6.6 million under the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative to build 30 new permanent supportive affordable housing units. This project will be located in North Central and operated by the North Central Family Centre.
So that’s 59 new affordable housing units. Definitely better than nothing. But it will only put a small dent in Regina’s houselessness crisis.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: CALL TO ACTION
So what can we do? At every opportunity we can call on the federal government to reinstitute its national affordable housing program and create at least 20,000 affordable housing units per year.
Below is the contact information for Regina MPs. As you know, they are all Conservative Party members. But we can also bombard PM Trudeau with messages.
Warren Steinley, Regina Lewvan: [email protected]
Michael Kram, Regina Wascana: [email protected]
Andrew Scheer, Regina Qu’Appelle: [email protected]
PM Trudeau: [email protected]
There is likely to be a federal election in the next year. Let’s make affordable housing an election issue!
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
To turn now to the provincial government. There are three major issues here.
MINIMUM WAGE
First, the minimum wage. On October 1, it went up in Saskatchewan to $14 an hour, a one dollar increase. Saskatchewan still has the lowest minimum wage in the country.
Let’s say you’re a single Mom with two kids and you work 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job. Your monthly pay cheque would be about $2,240.
The average rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Regina is $1,350. That leaves approximately $900 to cover all your other living expenses—utilities, food, clothing, transportation—for a family of three. According to a recent study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a decent standard of living requires a minimum wage of $16.23 per hour in Regina.
INCOME ASSISTANCE RATES
Now we will consider Saskatchewan’s two income assistance programs.
First, Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability—or the SAID program, described by the government as “an income support program for people with significant and enduring disabilities.”
In the 2023 provincial budget, SAID recipients got a $30 a month increase in their basic monthly living allowance. This was the first increase in SAID benefits since 2015 and it brought the average SAID payment to $1,380 a month.
The poverty line in Saskatchewan is $2,200 a month. So what this means is that people in Saskatchewan with “significant and enduring disabilities,” who don’t have any other kinds of support—from, say, family members—are living in dire poverty. This is government policy.
It gets even worse with the other income assistance program: Saskatchewan Income Support or SIS. According to the government, the SIS “program helps people in need meet their basic needs while they become more self-sufficient and independent to the best of their abilities.”
The 2023 provincial budget gave SIS recipients a $60 increase, which brought the monthly SIS Income Assistance payment to a grand total of $975. No one can live on that!
It’s not even enough to cover rent! This is legislated poverty.
EMPTY SASK HOUSING UNITS
The third major issue with the provincial government is empty Sask Housing units, 700 of them in Regina, 3,400 province wide. The province says that many of them are in disrepair. If this is the case, then the province should repair them and make them available for occupation asp.
GOOD NEWS
There is a bit of good news. On October 6, the provincial government announced $7.16 million to provide 155 new supportive housing units in Regina and Saskatoon, with most of them converted from currently vacant Sask Housing units.
Let’s say Regina gets 75 of these. It is definitely better than nothing, but not good enough, considering there are at least 2,200 unhoused people in Regina.
The government also announced $14.1 million for 120 new permanent emergency shelter spaces across the province. Again, better than nothing, but a shelter space is not a permanent residence.
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT: CALL TO ACTION
So what can we do? We can contact Premier Scott Moe and Minister of Social Services Gene Makowksy and, after thanking them for providing funding for some permanent supportive housing and some shelter spaces, tell them you want them to:
Premier Scott Moe: [email protected]
Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky: [email protected]
REGINA CITY COUNCIL
To turn to Regina City Council: Cities are where houselessness happens. However, cities lack the resources to end houselessness all on their own, as their only source of revenue is property taxes. But cities can and must do their part!
In June 2022, Regina City Council unanimously passed a motion for “full operational funding to solve homelessness” to be included in the proposed 2023 budget. However, when the proposed budget was released in November, such funding was not included. Instead, there was a lengthy explanation from the City Manager as to why it had been excluded—that being that it would cost taxpayers way-too-much—according to her estimation $122.5 million dollars. However, the figures used were both misleading and inflated. The actual cost would have been somewhere between $16 and $25 million.
How can a City Manager, an unelected city official, overrule the decision of City Council, elected city officials? This is not what democracy looks like!
As you may remember, a lawsuit was brought against the City Manager by Councillors LeBlanc and Stevens and myself in an attempt to ensure that democratic practices and principles were upheld by Regina City Council.
We lost the case, in that the judge ruled that the court was not the right place to address this issue—that it should be addressed by City Council, which it never was. That was all back in December 2022.
Then, as you may recall, in August 2023, four councillors—Stevens, LeBlanc, Zachidniak, and Stadnichuk—gave notice of a motion calling on the City to declare a “houselessness emergency” and “to make a long-term commitment to addressing houselessness as part of the 2024 budget process.” This motion was defeated when it came before council.
So here we are, going into winter with hundreds, if not thousands, of our fellow citizens living on the street. Think of all the misery and suffering. And, as we have already seen, houselessness kills.
POOR-BASHING
Before moving on to the demands we might make on City Council, I want to spend a few minutes on the language that officials used when they spoke of the encampment in front of City Hall and the people living there.
Although they were invited, neither Mayor Masters nor Social Services Minister Makowsky ever visited the camp. According to Minister Makowsky, a former Roughrider lineman, “safety concerns” kept him away. Mayor Masters also cited “safety” as her reason for not visiting the camp.
Why would anyone feel unsafe? I, a woman in my 80s, felt—and was—perfectly safe at the camp. Indeed, I was cared for. Often when I was leaving in the evening one of the campers would offer to walk with me to the bus stop and carry my bag for me.
Anyone who has read the book Poor-Bashing, by Jean Swanson, a former Vancouver City Councilor, will recognize Mayor Master’s and Minister Makowksy’s claims to be just that: Poor-bashing. As Swanson says, poor-bashing is, like sexism and racism, a form of discrimination used to justify inequality. The target in this case is poor people who are stereotyped as being vicious, dirty, lazy, worthless, even subhuman.
Taking the discriminatory language one step further, after the camp had been taken down, Mayor Masters made the following statement about the area in front of city hall where the camp had stood: “Essentially that ground is very polluted. It is essentially a biohazard. My understanding is that you would have to peel back at least six inches….It is a result of the encampment.”
Not only was this statement not factual—there were no biohazards where the city hall encampment had been located—Mayor Masters is also indicating that, in her view, poor, unhoused people are so disgusting and dirty that they pollute the very ground.
Given that the vast majority of unhoused people in Regina, are Indigenous, another form of discrimination can be seen operating in Minister Makowsky’s and Mayor Masters’ statements: racism.
REGINA CITY COUNCIL: CALL TO ACTION
So, what can we do?
Contact information for Mayor Masters and all the City Councillors can be found here: https://www.regina.ca/city-government/city-council/city-councillors/
CONCLUSION
I’m going to end where I began: with the tent encampment that stood in front of City Hall for 42 days.
Though not a solution to Regina’s houselessness crisis, the City Hall encampment was a beautiful place, with mainly young volunteers dedicated to providing the most vulnerable amongst us with the necessities of life; and people living in tents displaying such courage, grace, and good humour it was breath-taking.
Nor was the giving only in one direction. The people living in tents did as much work to keep the camp clean and functional as the volunteers. They also helped each other.
I haven’t yet mentioned all the people who dropped by with donations. One I especially remember is a woman who told me she had come in from east Regina where she lives in an apartment. “I, too, could be homeless,” the woman said. “I had to come and give something.” What she gave were about 50 very yummy sandwiches.
There was also the man who appeared with two huge pots, one filled with stew and the other with rice. He provided a tasty and nourishing meal for about eighty people.
And then there were the members of the Indigenous organization Redrum who arrived one afternoon with a truck full of provisions: 100s of bottles of water and Gatorade, many pairs of sox, and a huge supply of tooth brushes and paste, deodorant, and sanitary napkins.
This is citizens taking care of citizens. Since the camp came down, it has continued, with volunteers going out nightly, first to find and then to check on unhoused people huddled in various locations, mainly in core neighbourhoods, around the city, and to provide them with supplies they need so badly.
To repeat: Tent encampments, such as the one that stood in front of city hall for 42 days, are not a solution to houselessness. What is needed is permanent housing with supports if needed.
The camp in front of city hall did, however, provide a model for others to follow of citizens helping citizens. We all need to work together to end houselessness and discrimination and to stop perpetuating the injustices of our society.
Who do I mean when I say “We all need to work together? I mean you and me as individuals. Let’s do what we can and also talk to our friends and family.
But I also mean all community groups, professional associations, faith-based organizations, along with all levels of government. Let’s use the camp as our model and all work together to end houselessness!
Thank you!
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
Five Little Indians, by Michelle Good
True Reconciliation, by Jody Wilson-Raybould
Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire, by Caroline Elkins
The Nutmeg’s Curse, by Amitav Ghosh
Truth-Telling, by Michelle Good
Clearing The Plains, by James Daschuk
Poor-Bashing, by Jean Swanson
White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
Poverty and Houselessness: Presentation
INTRODUCTION
On July 28th, when the tent encampment at City Hall was taken down by Regina Police Service, I was lucky. I had a house and a bed to go to.
Actually, now that I think about it, it wasn’t so much luck. I have both white privilege and class privilege. Together they almost ensure that I will have a roof over my head—that I will never be houseless.
The people living in tents at the City Hall encampment lacked one or both of these privileges. And so the majority of them had nowhere to go. They have since then been chased from one tent encampment to another and left to wander the streets and back alleys of Regina. I dedicate this talk to them.
A big thanks to the Superannuated Teachers of Saskatchewan for inviting me to speak to you about houselessness in Regina. As some of you may remember, I spoke to you on this same subject a little under three years ago. Since then, as you have probably observed, things have only gotten worse.
NUMBERS
Let’s start with the numbers. How many unhoused people are there in Regina?
Every few years, cities across Canada do what is called a Point-in-Time Count—often referred to as a PiT Count. Here’s how it works:
On a particular night, volunteers go out around the city and count all the unhoused people they encounter. Added to this figure is the number of people staying in shelters on that particular night.
Regina’s most recent PiT Count took place in September 2021. 488 individuals were found to be experiencing houselessness.
The count before that was held in April 2018. 286 people were found to be unhoused. Do the math and the 2021 count indicates a 59% increase in the number of people who are unhoused in Regina.
Point-in-Time counts obviously have their limitations. How many unhoused people do the volunteers miss, for example? And what about all the folks who happen to be inside on that particular night?
The figure provided in 2019 in The Plan To End Homelessness In Regina, is likely more accurate. According to this document, 2,200 people were houseless in Regina in 2018. That number will only have grown.
Whatever figure we accept, the numbers are horrendous. Think of all the misery and suffering!
Regina is a rich city, in a rich province, in a rich country! No one should be houseless in Regina!
STARTLING FIGURE
Next question: Who is unhoused in Regina? In other words, what are the demographics of Regina’s houseless population?
Here’s a startling figure: 80% of unhoused people in Regina are Indigenous.
Why are so many Indigenous People houseless in Regina? The short answer to this question is settler colonialism. Or, as Jody Wilson-Raybould put it in her recent book True Reconciliation, houselessness amongst Indigenous People is one of the “symptoms of colonialism” (272).
CLEARING THE PLAINS 1878
Much of the next part of my presentation is based on James Daschuk’s ground-breaking book, Clearing the Plains, first published in 2013. If you haven’t already read it, I urge you to do so.
Daschuk teaches at the University of Regina.
As Daschuk puts it “In the mid-nineteenth century, peoples on the plains were perhaps the tallest and best-nourished population in the world. By the early 1880s, the nutritional advantage provided by the [buffalo] herds [was] gone for good” (100). The stage was thus set for the next phase of the colonization process.
I was taught in school that European settlement of the Canadian west was very peaceful, unlike that of the American west. This is a myth. Erased from this version of history is, among other things, the policy of deliberate starvation implemented by the government of John A. Macdonald in 1878: withholding food from Indigenous Peoples living across the plains, including right here where Regina is located, until they moved onto the tiny reserves the government had carved out for them.
The goal of the starvation policy was to clear the plains of Indigenous Peoples and thus to make way for the railroad and white settlement. In Macdonald’s words: “We are doing all we can by refusing food until the Indians are on the verge of starvation.” Thousands of Indigenous Peoples died as a result of this policy.
In other words, as Daschuk’s book reveals, Canada was founded on the genocide of Indigenous Peoples.
LAND ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
From this perspective, it might be useful to consider the land acknowledgements that so many of us who are settlers give at the beginning of events we are hosting. These land acknowledgements usually go something like this:
“This event is taking place on Treaty 4 territory, the original lands of the Nehiyawak, Anisinapek, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.”
A more honest and historically accurate land acknowledgement would go something like this:
This event it taking place on Treaty 4 territory, land stolen from Indigenous Peoples.
Or, as Canadian singer Jully Black put it when she sang “O Canada” at a NBA All-Star game earlier this year: “O Canada, our home on native land.”
ANOTHER STARTLING FIGURE
Here’s another startling figure.
The life expectancy of an unhoused person in Canada is 39 years. And so the genocide against Indigenous Peoples in Canada continues!
CLEARING THE PLAINS 2023
We might think about the take down by Regina Police Service of the tent encampment at City Hall in this context. How about we call it “Clearing the Plaza.”
There are many parallels between the clearing of the plains in 1878, along with colonial policies that followed, and the clearing of the plaza in 2023. For example: After the camp was taken down, a fence went up around the City Hall plaza, with NO TRESPASSING signs all along it. What it put me in mind of was the Pass System, implemented by the Canadian government in 1885, after Indigenous Peoples on the prairies had been forced onto reserves by the Government of Canada’s starvation policy. Under the pass system, Indigenous People could not leave their reserve without obtaining the permission of the Indian Agent.
The purpose of the Pass System was to keep Indigenous People out of white space. Though it never became law, the Pass System lasted until the 1940s. And perhaps in another guise it is still with us today. Look at what happened to Colten Boushie when he ventured onto white property.
And who was the fence that went up around city hall designed to keep out?
TERM ‘HOUSELESSNESS’
I thought we might pause for a moment and consider terminology. When I spoke to you in 2021, I used the word “homeless” to describe people living on the street because they do not have a dwelling place or permanent shelter. Today, I am using the words “houseless” or “unhoused.” Why the change in terminology?
It was Shylo Stevenson who explained it to me. As some of you may remember, Shylo was much in the media when Camp Hope was established in Pepsi Park in October of 2021, as he was one of the main volunteers.
Here’s Shylo’s explanation: Regina is situated on Indigenous land. An Indigenous person cannot be homeless on their own land. That land is their home. But they can be houseless or unhoused—that is lacking a roof over their head or any permanent kind of shelter.
The terms “houseless” and “unhoused” are now being used all over Canada and in the US too. A more general reason for the shift in terminology is that the term “homeless” has become stigmatizing, as it perpetuates negative stereotypes about people who lack permanent shelter. You might consider what image comes to mind when we hear the term “the homeless.”
SOLUTIONS: ENDING HOUSELESSNESS
So that’s a lot of background information. What do we do with it? What can we do to end houselessness in Regina?
All three levels of government have to act. So too does each of us.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
I’m going to start with the federal government.
- In 1973, the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau instituted a national affordable housing program, which for the next decade, created about 20,000 affordable housing units per year.
- Major cuts to government funding for social housing began in 1984, under Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government.
- The real turning point, however, came in 1993, when the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien cancelled all spending on new social housing projects.
- Then, in 1996, the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien announced it was shifting the running of all social housing to the provinces.
- Jumping to the present, in August of this year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that housing isn’t primarily a federal responsibility.
At the same time, it should be noted that the federal government has, in recent years, provided some funding for low-income housing projects. Two of them are in Regina.
In 2021, the City received $7.75 million under the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative to build a minimum of 29 new permanent supportive affordable housing units. The building, located on North Broad Street, is now ready for occupancy and will be operated by Regina Treaty Status Indian Services—or RTSIS.
Earlier this year, the City received $6.6 million under the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative to build 30 new permanent supportive affordable housing units. This project will be located in North Central and operated by the North Central Family Centre.
So that’s 59 new affordable housing units. Definitely better than nothing. But it will only put a small dent in Regina’s houselessness crisis.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: CALL TO ACTION
So what can we do? At every opportunity we can call on the federal government to reinstitute its national affordable housing program and create at least 20,000 affordable housing units per year.
Below is the contact information for Regina MPs. As you know, they are all Conservative Party members. But we can also bombard PM Trudeau with messages.
Warren Steinley, Regina Lewvan: [email protected]
Michael Kram, Regina Wascana: [email protected]
Andrew Scheer, Regina Qu’Appelle: [email protected]
PM Trudeau: [email protected]
There is likely to be a federal election in the next year. Let’s make affordable housing an election issue!
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
To turn now to the provincial government. There are three major issues here.
MINIMUM WAGE
First, the minimum wage. On October 1, it went up in Saskatchewan to $14 an hour, a one dollar increase. Saskatchewan still has the lowest minimum wage in the country.
Let’s say you’re a single Mom with two kids and you work 40 hours a week at a minimum wage job. Your monthly pay cheque would be about $2,240.
The average rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Regina is $1,350. That leaves approximately $900 to cover all your other living expenses—utilities, food, clothing, transportation—for a family of three. According to a recent study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a decent standard of living requires a minimum wage of $16.23 per hour in Regina.
INCOME ASSISTANCE RATES
Now we will consider Saskatchewan’s two income assistance programs.
First, Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability—or the SAID program, described by the government as “an income support program for people with significant and enduring disabilities.”
In the 2023 provincial budget, SAID recipients got a $30 a month increase in their basic monthly living allowance. This was the first increase in SAID benefits since 2015 and it brought the average SAID payment to $1,380 a month.
The poverty line in Saskatchewan is $2,200 a month. So what this means is that people in Saskatchewan with “significant and enduring disabilities,” who don’t have any other kinds of support—from, say, family members—are living in dire poverty. This is government policy.
It gets even worse with the other income assistance program: Saskatchewan Income Support or SIS. According to the government, the SIS “program helps people in need meet their basic needs while they become more self-sufficient and independent to the best of their abilities.”
The 2023 provincial budget gave SIS recipients a $60 increase, which brought the monthly SIS Income Assistance payment to a grand total of $975. No one can live on that!
It’s not even enough to cover rent! This is legislated poverty.
EMPTY SASK HOUSING UNITS
The third major issue with the provincial government is empty Sask Housing units, 700 of them in Regina, 3,400 province wide. The province says that many of them are in disrepair. If this is the case, then the province should repair them and make them available for occupation asp.
GOOD NEWS
There is a bit of good news. On October 6, the provincial government announced $7.16 million to provide 155 new supportive housing units in Regina and Saskatoon, with most of them converted from currently vacant Sask Housing units.
Let’s say Regina gets 75 of these. It is definitely better than nothing, but not good enough, considering there are at least 2,200 unhoused people in Regina.
The government also announced $14.1 million for 120 new permanent emergency shelter spaces across the province. Again, better than nothing, but a shelter space is not a permanent residence.
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT: CALL TO ACTION
So what can we do? We can contact Premier Scott Moe and Minister of Social Services Gene Makowksy and, after thanking them for providing funding for some permanent supportive housing and some shelter spaces, tell them you want them to:
- Raise the minimum wage to $16.23 an hour
- Raise both the SIS and SAID rates above the poverty line
- Make all vacant Sask Housing units available for occupancy.
Premier Scott Moe: [email protected]
Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky: [email protected]
REGINA CITY COUNCIL
To turn to Regina City Council: Cities are where houselessness happens. However, cities lack the resources to end houselessness all on their own, as their only source of revenue is property taxes. But cities can and must do their part!
In June 2022, Regina City Council unanimously passed a motion for “full operational funding to solve homelessness” to be included in the proposed 2023 budget. However, when the proposed budget was released in November, such funding was not included. Instead, there was a lengthy explanation from the City Manager as to why it had been excluded—that being that it would cost taxpayers way-too-much—according to her estimation $122.5 million dollars. However, the figures used were both misleading and inflated. The actual cost would have been somewhere between $16 and $25 million.
How can a City Manager, an unelected city official, overrule the decision of City Council, elected city officials? This is not what democracy looks like!
As you may remember, a lawsuit was brought against the City Manager by Councillors LeBlanc and Stevens and myself in an attempt to ensure that democratic practices and principles were upheld by Regina City Council.
We lost the case, in that the judge ruled that the court was not the right place to address this issue—that it should be addressed by City Council, which it never was. That was all back in December 2022.
Then, as you may recall, in August 2023, four councillors—Stevens, LeBlanc, Zachidniak, and Stadnichuk—gave notice of a motion calling on the City to declare a “houselessness emergency” and “to make a long-term commitment to addressing houselessness as part of the 2024 budget process.” This motion was defeated when it came before council.
So here we are, going into winter with hundreds, if not thousands, of our fellow citizens living on the street. Think of all the misery and suffering. And, as we have already seen, houselessness kills.
POOR-BASHING
Before moving on to the demands we might make on City Council, I want to spend a few minutes on the language that officials used when they spoke of the encampment in front of City Hall and the people living there.
Although they were invited, neither Mayor Masters nor Social Services Minister Makowsky ever visited the camp. According to Minister Makowsky, a former Roughrider lineman, “safety concerns” kept him away. Mayor Masters also cited “safety” as her reason for not visiting the camp.
Why would anyone feel unsafe? I, a woman in my 80s, felt—and was—perfectly safe at the camp. Indeed, I was cared for. Often when I was leaving in the evening one of the campers would offer to walk with me to the bus stop and carry my bag for me.
Anyone who has read the book Poor-Bashing, by Jean Swanson, a former Vancouver City Councilor, will recognize Mayor Master’s and Minister Makowksy’s claims to be just that: Poor-bashing. As Swanson says, poor-bashing is, like sexism and racism, a form of discrimination used to justify inequality. The target in this case is poor people who are stereotyped as being vicious, dirty, lazy, worthless, even subhuman.
Taking the discriminatory language one step further, after the camp had been taken down, Mayor Masters made the following statement about the area in front of city hall where the camp had stood: “Essentially that ground is very polluted. It is essentially a biohazard. My understanding is that you would have to peel back at least six inches….It is a result of the encampment.”
Not only was this statement not factual—there were no biohazards where the city hall encampment had been located—Mayor Masters is also indicating that, in her view, poor, unhoused people are so disgusting and dirty that they pollute the very ground.
Given that the vast majority of unhoused people in Regina, are Indigenous, another form of discrimination can be seen operating in Minister Makowsky’s and Mayor Masters’ statements: racism.
REGINA CITY COUNCIL: CALL TO ACTION
So, what can we do?
- At the September 13 meeting of City Council, Mayor Masters and Councillors Bresicani and Hawkins repeatedly claimed that the city is already spending $7.1 million annually to address houselessness. Ask the Mayor and the Councillors for a breakdown of that figure. If it includes such things as tax exemptions for organizations or a warming bus, let them know such things do not end houselessness.
- We are only thirteen months away from a municipal election. Let’s make ending houselessness the main election issue.
- In the meantime, let’s all call on the Mayor and our councillors to include full operational funding to solve houselessness in the 2024 budget. Meetings to discuss the 2024 budget are scheduled to start on December 13, and run through December 14, and 15.
Contact information for Mayor Masters and all the City Councillors can be found here: https://www.regina.ca/city-government/city-council/city-councillors/
CONCLUSION
I’m going to end where I began: with the tent encampment that stood in front of City Hall for 42 days.
Though not a solution to Regina’s houselessness crisis, the City Hall encampment was a beautiful place, with mainly young volunteers dedicated to providing the most vulnerable amongst us with the necessities of life; and people living in tents displaying such courage, grace, and good humour it was breath-taking.
Nor was the giving only in one direction. The people living in tents did as much work to keep the camp clean and functional as the volunteers. They also helped each other.
I haven’t yet mentioned all the people who dropped by with donations. One I especially remember is a woman who told me she had come in from east Regina where she lives in an apartment. “I, too, could be homeless,” the woman said. “I had to come and give something.” What she gave were about 50 very yummy sandwiches.
There was also the man who appeared with two huge pots, one filled with stew and the other with rice. He provided a tasty and nourishing meal for about eighty people.
And then there were the members of the Indigenous organization Redrum who arrived one afternoon with a truck full of provisions: 100s of bottles of water and Gatorade, many pairs of sox, and a huge supply of tooth brushes and paste, deodorant, and sanitary napkins.
This is citizens taking care of citizens. Since the camp came down, it has continued, with volunteers going out nightly, first to find and then to check on unhoused people huddled in various locations, mainly in core neighbourhoods, around the city, and to provide them with supplies they need so badly.
To repeat: Tent encampments, such as the one that stood in front of city hall for 42 days, are not a solution to houselessness. What is needed is permanent housing with supports if needed.
The camp in front of city hall did, however, provide a model for others to follow of citizens helping citizens. We all need to work together to end houselessness and discrimination and to stop perpetuating the injustices of our society.
Who do I mean when I say “We all need to work together? I mean you and me as individuals. Let’s do what we can and also talk to our friends and family.
But I also mean all community groups, professional associations, faith-based organizations, along with all levels of government. Let’s use the camp as our model and all work together to end houselessness!
Thank you!
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
Five Little Indians, by Michelle Good
True Reconciliation, by Jody Wilson-Raybould
Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire, by Caroline Elkins
The Nutmeg’s Curse, by Amitav Ghosh
Truth-Telling, by Michelle Good
Clearing The Plains, by James Daschuk
Poor-Bashing, by Jean Swanson
White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo