Plan to end homelessness in Regina needs funding

All three levels of government to reCeive requests for AssistAnCe

After months of work and a mountain of community feedback, the foundation of Regina’s plan to end homelessness in the city is now in place. The plan’s leadership committee got a preview last week, learning what’s likely to show up in a final version due for September. Shawn Fraser, senior director of partnership strategy for the YMCA, said it will place demands on all levels of government for a “system-changing investment.”

“We know there’s going to be an ask of all three orders of government,” he said, adding that the non-profit sector and private companies may also be asked to play a role. The plan will spell out how success is measured and who will be accountable for it.

“Our fingers are crossed that everyone is going to take a piece,” he said.

Mayor Michael Fougere joined Fraser at the committee meeting, which also included Coun. Andrew Stevens, provincial government representatives and leaders of numerous community groups. Fougere said he’s “always optimistic” and believes success is possible.

“We do have the resources to do it,” he said. “It’s how we align ourselves collectively to get there and that’s part of the big picture discussion we need to have.”

But he said the city is limited in what it can do — with its role likely to centre on tax exemptions and housing incentives.

“The burden of dealing with homelessness rests with the province and the federal government,” the mayor said.

Fraser said a costing range is now on the table. He declined to reveal specifics, but pointed to a $47-million figure for Kelowna’s plan and a more-than-$100-million rough estimate a consultant gave for Regina in March.

“There’s a ballpark that both those are in,” he said.

Last week’s meeting follows months of design labs and a summit, where about 200 people debated what it even means to end homelessness. Fraser said the plan won’t simplify the matter to a single number, instead using a “basket of indicators” to measure progress.

He provided “broad strokes” of what indicators the committee is now talking about, and what’s likely to make the cut.

“An example we might see in the plan would be an actual survey of people who are using the services. How do they feel about it? Is it working for them?” he said. Other candidates include measures of how long people stay in shelters and how often they get turned away.

Fraser noted the success of Housing First initiatives, like a pilot program at Phoenix Residential Society in Regina.

It aims to put chronically homeless people in housing and then find them supports for deep-seated problems like addiction and mental illness — a reversal of the traditional approach.

He said efforts to shorten wait lists for those programs must be a “key component” of the plan.

“We don’t want a wait list,” he said. “The essence of ending homelessness is when someone shows up at a shelter and identifies as being homeless that there’s a community standard on how long they have to wait in the system before they’re just in a house.”

But shelters will likely remain a part of Regina’s reality, if only as a brief landing pad for people transitioning to something permanent. Fraser pointed to the example of other cities who have achieved “functional zero homelessness” by limiting shelter stays to about 10 days.

The federal government and the city jointly funded the development of the plan to end homelessness in Regina, which has been gaining steam since last year but officially got underway this February.

The province has not contributed financially, and Fraser acknowledged there’s no way to know whether it will pay its part of the price tag for the plan to come.

Nonetheless, he said those crafting it need to aim high.

“It has to be both ambitious and achievable,” he said. “If it’s not ambitious, it’s not going to have the support of the community.”