First results in for Saskatoon’s Housing First program

Watch above: Ending homelessness in Saskatoon objective of recent partnership

SASKATOON – Six months ago, Saskatoon’s plan to end homelessness was initiated with a Housing First program. Now, the first set of data and success stories are being released.

“To find that there’s a $668,000 saving over six months, we’re still trying to process that,” said Rita Field, executive director of the Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Service.

After launching in April, the Housing First program has made strides beyond organizers wildest dreams.

“It really is about the quality of life, about safety, about return to citizenship. We see that they’re so happy to have a key, a safe place to be, a place where they can cook their own food and have friends over,” said Field.

Nineteen of the city’s most vulnerable have been housed over the past six months. Data collected in that time shows the program has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, decreasing demand in emergency and related services.

“It shows when there’s a focused effort on an issue that you can really come up with some positive results and I think in this case they focused on a number of individuals and you see the results,” said Saskatoon police deputy chief Mark Chatterbok.

“This is certainly helping us cope with the boom in our city and these types of initiatives are exactly what we need to better serve our community in the right way, in the community,” said Corey Miller, integrated health services vice president with the Saskatoon Health Region.

There are 17 participants still in the voluntary program. While the United Way of Saskatoon leads the initiative, the Saskatoon Crisis Intervention Centre deployed it.

“The numbers small so far so we can provide the intensive support until we can grow our team, right now it’s three staff providing services to 17 people, it may seem small and it may seem like how are we going to deal with the hundreds of homeless people but it’s a step in the right direction,” said Field.

Participants throughout the city are making the adjustment from sleeping on the street to having a place to call home.

“It’s a program where you don’t fail. If the housing doesn’t work out and something happens we’ll find other housing and we’ll work it out,” said Field.

It’s estimated the cost of homelessness in Canada is $7-billion annually.