REGINA - Regina has declared a houselessness crisis after a point-in-time (PIT) count recently revealed the city has 824 homeless people.
The motion put forward by Ward 3 Coun. David Froh called on the provincial and federal government to immediately address the houselessness crisis.
"People are dying in Regina," he said. At a recent memorial, the names of over 100 homeless people who passed away were read out, which is a 49 per cent increase since 2022.
As part of the motion, the city is calling on the provincial government to make immediate occupation available at all empty Sask. Housing units in Regina and throughout the province.
Additionally, Regina is requesting that Sask. raise the province’s income assistance rates. In their 2025 budget, Sask. announced a 2 per cent increase for the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) and Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID).
Under these raises, households could receive $60 per month more under SIS, while up to $684 more per year for SAID.
However, these increases aren’t large enough. Froh's motion is asking for this to happen to ensure clients do not fall below the poverty line.
City administration is also 小蓝视频 called on to bring back a report detailing "the financial resources required to execute the City’s obligations, strategies and tactics contained within the 'Community Safety & Well小蓝视频 Plan,' and the 'Everyone is Home' plan to end homelessness, in order to inform and guide our financial request."
However, some councillors took an issue with needing a certain amount of money to address homelessness.
"I don’t think we should put dollar signs on people in need," said Ward 7 Coun. Shobna Radons.
Victoria Flores (Ward 6) agreed with Radon's words, saying the city is only as strong as the community members in it.
Other councillors felt the motion wasn’t taking enough action to address homelessness.
"You don’t need a motion to talk to the provincial and federal government," said George Tsiklis, Ward 2 Coun.
Tsiklis also criticized the city and how programs like Community and Social Impact Regina (CSIR) spent millions of dollars with no results or how the Regina Eagles Club is supposedly $5 million more than a brand new building.
He eventually took aim at re-elected councillors for their lack of action.
"We have an affordability crisis, folks. Some members of this council were sitting here four years and sat on this land designated eight years ago for affordable housing [and] did nothing to build homes there."
Ward 1 Coun. Dan Rashovich also made a point regarding how, under the new SIS program, clients are allocated a budget for their shelter and must pay rent and utilities themselves.
Rashovich said that both the provincial government needs to reverse the SIS policy while the city needs to watch its spending better.
Eventually, city council passed the motion 8-2, with Tsiklis and Clark Bezo (Ward 10) voting against it.
Froh comments
During a media scrum, Froh said the city has been "screaming for years that there’s a crisis."
Regina has previously tried to declare a houselessness crisis in 2023, but that didn’t go through.
Froh said this approval shows "[a] message that all of Regina is serious about addressing the crisis from faith groups of the business community right across the board."
Even though councillors argued with the immediate lack of action involved in the motion, Froh said it’s all about getting resources.
"With no resources or timelines attached, it isn't worth the paper that it's written on."
Froh said city council has met with several politicians, including "provincially, with the government in opposition [and we've met with the federal opposition caucus."
He is calling on the current federal candidates to "publicly speak about how they would address this houselessness crisis and how they would focus on housing and income support."
