With four councillors calling for immediate action to deal with the homelessness situation in Regina, the issue — one of the main topics for Wednesday’s city council meeting — was postponed to a later date.
Coun. Shanon Zachidniak read the statement of the motion for the City of Regina to declare a houselessness emergency and to call on the federal and provincial governments to contribute to emergency funding to address the emergent houselessness crisis immediately.
Also, Zachidniak asked that council direct administration to create a plan by the end of the third quarter of 2023 to provide temporary barrier-free shelter for Regina residents in need and that the city make a long-term commitment to addressing houselessness in the 2024 budget process.
Mayor Sandra Masters told council that questions and discussions will be held until Sept. 13.
“A motion gets read at one council meeting and gets heard at the next council meeting council,” Masters said. “Coun. Zachidniak had asked for unanimous consent … and if either one opposes, it can’t be heard. What you saw was the majority of council opposed hearing it.”
For months, the city has been under pressure to take definitive action. Four councillors want the city to declare a state of emergency.
“What we’re proposing is that we need a short- and long-term plan in collaboration with other levels of government,” Zachidniak said in a previous interview. “This has reached an emergency level in our community, and we do have data showing that between 2015 and 2021, according to our point-in-time homelessness count, that the amounts of folks houseless has risen 110 per cent. And the problem has certainly visibly gotten worse since then.”
The mayor added that the city is doing what it can.
“We continue to work with the province and the federal government on the issue,” she said. “Clearly, it’s ongoing.”
Last year, city council passed a motion to eradicate homelessness but did not provide the funding for that program.