REGINA - The homeless issue has shown up this week right on the doorstep of Regina City Hall.
A homeless encampment has set up on the lawn in front of City Hall and has been there for over a week.
The indication is that the encampment had previously set up in the Pepsi Park area where a barbeque was held recently to mark the anniversary of the motion on homelessness that went before City Council last year.
After that event, a parade took place down Victoria Avenue to relocate the tents to the front of City Hall. There, houseless individuals have been located there throughout the week, with food, blankets and other assistance being provided to them by several community members.
The City Hall encampment had drawn a reaction this week from city officials. Councillor Dan LeBlanc, the author of the homeless funding motion last year, made known to reporters Wednesday he believed the encampment had every right to set up at City Hall.
"The lived reality of folks experiencing houselessness has gone on a long time," said LeBlanc.
"This is just more in our face, and harder to ignore. And I think houseless folks and their allies are wise to do that, because some, not all, but some of the fault for those reasons for those folks living in tents does fall at our feet, and they are right to come to the seat of power which is City Hall. The only other place they could more logically go is the legislature grounds, but they're not wrong to be on our doorstep."
The encampment also drew a reaction from Regina Police Chief Evan Bray, who was quoted in the media as calling it a publicity stunt. On Thursday speaking to reporters, Bray clarified his remarks about the camp and those involved in it.
“There’s three groups of people I’m about to talk about. Number one, those that are homeless. And I’ll tell you that our police service, me included, will continue to stand by and support and provide all kinds of assistance wherever possible to people that are finding themselves homeless in the city. This is a very complex issue. We’ve talked about this many many times over the years, it’s not something that the same fox for everybody. What some people need is simply a home. What other people need is assistance with an addiction or maybe some long-term trauma or mental health, and so supportive housing becomes part of that discussion as well. But support for and willingness to end homelessness in Regina is something our police service will further stand by.
“Number two are the people who that want to help. There are a lot of people that are volunteering to give water, bring blankets, those types of things, and they’ve existed for years in our city and I think that’s what the essence of our city is. Our city is built on volunteers and people that care and want to make a difference, and so I very much appreciate people that truly want to make a difference…”
“My pointed comments that I made are about people that are trying in my view to exploit those that are homeless. People that are using this as a grandstand to stick it to government, to stick it to City Hall. There are people that organized the march down Victoria Avenue and wanted to plunk a homeless tent encampment in front of City Hall. That to me is a protest, that to me is not about trying to do necessarily what’s best for the homeless people, the people thst need the help. That’s about exploiting them. And I’m going to stand by my comments on that. There are people out there could go home to their beds at the end of the night that are using people in their most dire time to try and make points, make political points. There are people that are even doing it on a speaking circuit now, talking about the work that they’ve done with this as well. It becomes very self-serving, and that very much frustrates me.”
As for how they would deal with the homeless situation, Bray said their goal is not to arrest people. “Protests are different,” he said, pointing to a situation where police were called to City Hall chambers where guests refused to leave the gallery after the Mayor ordered the chamber cleared.
“My point to you is the goal is not to make arrests. Our goal is to work with community partners, the city, provincial partners. Social Services have been down and walking the streets of our city every day this year helping people transition into some sort of housing or supportive housing. There are efforts that have been happening all the time. Our goal and our focus will not be to arrest homeless people. I can’t promise we won’t arrest a protester.”
In response to reporters this week, Mayor Sandra Masters pointed out the issue was not one of supply in the city. Instead it was one of barriers for those with addictions issues in either accessing housing or being able to obtain the supports needed.
In speaking to reporters Thursday, Masters made the point that it wasn’t enough to put people into housing without supports being in place, and “we’re not the supports,” pointing instead to provincial and federal governments. The mayor made it known that what was needed was a plan to address intervention for fentanyl and methamphetamine.
“Something has to change when it comes to substance abuse disorder,” Masters said, noting that “without intervention we’re going to stay in a cycle because addiction has an unbelievable grip on folks.”
The mayor admitted being frustrated on the whole issue.
“It’s not even just frustrating, it’s unbelievably disheartening. I talk to parents, I talk to other folks who have children or family member members dealing with addiction. There’s no way to help, there’s no law that requires me to seek help. So we will intervene when someone’s 18 and under, and say they’re a danger to them and to others. We don’t really do that for adults over the age of 18, there’s nothing you can do if someone waives off help… Addiction is the number one complicating factor in terms of finding housing or shelter, it’s the number one complicating factor from a health care perspective in terms of how to address it.”
