Ending Homelessness

WHEREAS no person should suffer homelessness;

WHEREAS in 2018, the City of Regina (the “City”) commissioned the production of a five-year plan to end homelessness: Everyone is Home, a Five-Year Plan to End Chronic and Episodic Homelessness in Regina, available at: P2EH-Full-Final-0610.pdf (endhomelessnessregina.ca) (the “Plan”);

WHEREAS the Plan highlighted a priority investment of $5.5M/year for housing first and supportive housing in order to support 270 “complex clients experiencing chronic and episodic homelessness”;

WHEREAS housing and supporting homeless individuals is not only humane, but saves taxes on aggregate;

WHEREAS since 2018, the City has been unsuccessful in its attempts to have the Saskatchewan Government directly participate in funding the Plan in whole or in part;

WHEREAS the City has recommitted to issues of social and environmental justice since 2018, including through adopting the Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan; and

WHEREAS the commitments underlying the Plan remain unfulfilled, and this work remains urgent;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Administration be directed to include the following in the 2023 proposed budget:

1.     Full operational funding to solve homelessness throughout the City using a housing first, supportive housing model. This draft funding to be clearly demarcated in a line item of its own.

2.     Any supplemental report required to explain the costing of point 1, above.

a.     This report will provide the estimated number of chronically homeless persons in Regina, the anticipated cost per individual to provide supportive housing to these individuals, the anticipated timeline to house these individuals if the draft funding were approved, and the means by which the City would deploy the funding if approved (including through working with service partners).

b.     This report will also describe the financial cost of continued inaction on this issue. This analysis will outline the current, ongoing costs of unaddressed homelessness throughout the City.

Respectfully submitted,