(Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Homeless Crisis

P.A. city council throwing support and funding behind homelessness initiative

Nov 9, 2021 | 8:43 AM

Prince Albert city council is putting its support behind a new initiative aimed at reducing the number of homeless people.

Council met on Monday where they approved sending $10,500 to Dr. Chad Nilson with the Living Skies Centre for Social Inquiry who plans on using the money to help create a community forum tasked with finding solutions to reduce the number of individuals living on the street.

The P.A. Community Advisory Board on Homelessness is also providing $25,000 for the project.

Dr. Nilson believes this is the best path towards action.

“There must be shared ownership over homelessness in Prince Albert, that is the only way this community is going to reduce not only homelessness but the impact of homelessness on our residents and businesses.”

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The forum will include professionals in multiple sectors such as housing, mental health, addictions, policing, corrections, courts, business and investment, and municipal, Indigenous, and provincial governments.

The hope is to have the chosen representatives up to speed before the end of the year.

Besides that, Dr. Nilson noted he can’t give an exact timeline on when the community can see real action.

“There very well could be 25 problems we’re talking about here. Some might take five years, and some might take five days, they all depend on the nature of the problem.”

All of council, except for Councillor Terra Lennox-Zepp, voted in favour of the initiative.

She said she couldn’t give the project her support as she believed they should be using funds to help people now as the cold weather approaches.

Councillor Don Cody clapped back.

“We can’t say that the action is just for this winter, homelessness is going to appear next winter again. We have to do this for the long term.”

There are services in place to support those currently living on the street. This includes the Stepping Stones Shelter which has been expanded to 20 beds and an understanding with the community’s detox centre and police service to offer beds if needed.

Lennox-Zepp was also upset this initiative wasn’t brought up during the summer so potential solutions could be introduced for this winter.

Mayor Greg Dionne said he understands this issue is important, however, other things have also needed to be dealt with.

“Every week I deal with COVID, there’s economics to deal with. I don’t live in a perfect world; I wish we did but we don’t.”

He added the summer is a horrible time to get work done as many people are more concerned about relaxation than municipal politics.

Along with mental health and addiction issues, the recent change to the Saskatchewan Income Support program (SIS) is believed to be a big reason for the high number of homeless people in the community.

As of Aug. 31, 2021, cheques for rent are being sent to tenants instead of landlords. Some critics of the program say that instead of paying their bills, some have decided to use the funds from SIS to pay for their vices.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow