The real housing crisis in Saskatoon – houselessness

Experts in the field are calling it an ongoing crisis. And the data is backing it up.

The City of Saskatoon, with Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership, recently conducted a Point-in-Time (PiT) count of the city’s homeless population. The results, released in late November, identified a total of 1,931 individuals experiencing homelessness – 432 more than the 2024 count.

“It’s a crisis situation and it’s getting worse with the cold weather,” said Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) Chief Mark Arcand.

This weekend the province is experiencing its first extreme cold snap of the year.

“An additional 432 people is really significant on the system of trying to keep people warm and safe,” he said. “It’s becoming system overload.”

The new figure of 1,931 homeless individuals includes 725 unsheltered, 327 in emergency shelters, 151 encampments, 444 in transitional homes, 47 in systems, and 237 hidden homeless, including people couch surfing or living night to night in hotels.

STC operates an emergency wellness centre with 106 beds which is invariably at capacity, said Arcand.

“Our waiting list is always full,” said Arcand. “ People will walk-in off the street to see if anything is available. That’s how drastic it is. As soon as you help one person get housing, another three-to-five are coming through the door with the same challenges.”

He believes the homeless population in Saskatoon is larger than the PiT count indicates.

Arcand has seen more elderly people lately without proper shelter.

“We have to be clear – it’s not just (individuals) with addictions and mental health challenges,” he said. “It’s people who can’t afford rent and food. It’s a real challenge to keep and support people. We see a lot of good investments but there never seems to be enough.”

Arcand knows drugs have played a major factor in the homelessness crisis, with crystal meth and fentanyl being a prevalent and destructive force in the city.

Statistics support his claim.

A recent study from Stats Canada found that Saskatchewan has the highest per-capita rate of drug and alcohol addiction in Canada.

The two issues can work to compound each other, said Arcand.

“A lot of our relatives that continue to use basically will refuse help,” said Arcand. “How do you educate someone to seek medical help, to get them off drugs, to get them better, if they’re refusing help?”

Similar to the STC Wellness Centre, the YWCA runs several several housing and shelter facilities, including a 34-bed women and children crisis shelter.

Women at the centre can stay for up to 30 days, and are connected with supports like parenting and employment programming.

The YWCA centre is also at full capacity at all times, and as they do not have a waiting list, often have individuals checking in daily for availability.

“The only time we have any openings is as long as it takes to clean a suite or room and get someone else in,” said Cara Bahr, CEO of YWCA Saskatoon.

According to Bahr, the YWCA turned away over 4,000 individuals due to space limitations throughout their housing facilities and shelters in 2024. Requests come from individuals all over the province, she said.

Bahr also believes the homeless population is larger than the reported PiT number.

“There’s a lot of folks who are precariously housed at any given moment,” she said. “We see women and kids where they’re staying in a place that isn’t safe for them but they have no where else to go, bumping from relative to relative with no permanent residency.”

Bahr said there’s a backlog of people waiting for support with complex needs – including trauma, mental health and addiction issues, chronic health issues – with not enough funding to provide the level of support they need.

“And because we’re in a state of economic uncertainty right now, I think things will get worse before they get better unless we really start thinking about how to coordinate a systems-level response,” said Bahr.