Can Ottawa’s 10-year plan end Canada’s homeless crisis?

The government has pledged $11.2 million over the next four years to address homelessness, including money for transitional and permanent housing and integrated social supports for things like mental health and addiction.

Richter says he hopes the 10-year federal plan will finally rally provinces and cities to tackle what the government has called “one of Canada’s most urgent social challenges.”

In Prince Albert, an increase in provincial grant funding from about $260,000 last year to $497,000 this fall will allow the city to open two warming shelters this winter. Council approved the grant motion at a special meeting this past week, with the funding also supporting additional garbage collection and security patrols.

Additionally, Prince Albert’s latest count of people experiencing homelessness is expected to surpass last year’s total of 279 as business owners near a large homeless encampment south of the city are calling for its removal.

A view from above the encampment off 48th Street. (Image Credit: Nigel Maxwell/paNOW)

Elsewhere, homeless encampments have been shut down in both Saskatoon and Regina over the past few weeks.

A camp in Regina at Core Community Park was shuttered on Oct. 27 by Regina fire chief Layne Jackson called an “imminent” fire risk after several blazes at the encampment the weekend before, one of which sent someone to hospital.

“What we can confirm is a pattern of folks bringing open flame devices and open fires into their tents, along with compressed gases such as propane, which creates a very, very dangerous and imminent situation,” Jackson said.

In Saskatoon, a homeless encampment on 20th Street and Avenue K South was dismantled by the city on Oct. 8 after saying that encampments pose safety risks to those who live in them, and raise concerns about sanitation, gang activity, drug use as the sites grow.

Yvonne Raymer, Saskatoon’s deputy fire chief, said the fire department had responded to four fires at other encampments in the city the same week.

She said one fire destroyed a tent and spread to nearby trees in Optimist Park, another spread to brush and trees in the same park six hours later, and a third fire in the backyard of a vacant property destroyed a makeshift shelter. The next night a fire got out of control in a park off Idylwyld Drive.

Business near a large homeless encampment south of Prince Albert are also calling for its removal.

— with files from paNOW’s Nigel Maxwell, 980 CJME’s Geoff Smith, and 650 CKOM’s Libby Gray

by The Canadian Press

Can Ottawa’s 10-year plan end Canada’s homeless crisis?

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