Regina city councillor hoping to find housing for encampment residents

It's getting colder out there, and Regina's encampment remains. Now, last we heard, six city councillors wrote to social services and the minister for the province asking for more money, housing, and housing supports. One of them was Ward 6 Councillor Victoria Flores. The encampment is in her ward, and she joins us now for an update. Good morning, Councillor. Good morning. Thanks for having me. You're very welcome. So, a couple of weeks ago, you sent this letter out to Minister Terry Jensen. It was co-signed by a few councillors. What was your argument in the letter? what did you lay out for for the minister um so essentially the the call is to what are the things are within the provincial government's jurisdiction that uh we hope can change or or be done so that we can deal with the issue of unhoused folks in our communities not just in Regina across Saskatchewan but we're seeing a lot of that in Regina we've seen the number of unhoused people grow like three times um in the past few years and we're seeing that across Saskatchewan as well we just had the pit count last week so i'm wondering what that was like as well so the idea is what's within the jurisdiction of the provincial government like income support direct payments to landlords making sure people are not discharging to homelessness those kinds of things and of course housing like supportive housing for folks who need it so what has happened since that time so since then we continue like the city is doing everything that's within our ability right like uh after the letter i you know i i saw the the statements made by the province to media in terms of you know what what's their response to the open letter and a lot of it was this is a shared responsibility which i absolutely agree this is a shared responsibility between all orders of government and we're asking for their share right like housing mental health addictions social services that's all within the provincial jurisdiction so they ask us we need support there we have an encampment support team that is doing everything they can but our five people do not compare to ministries that you know it is my hope that continue to to provide support in that area especially with with supportive housing right and in connecting with volunteers there with encampment supports we know there are a number of people that need more wraparound supports to be housed and the number of supportive housing that we have in the city and in the province does not meet the the need in our communities so it is it does not when we can't house the number of people that need to be housed with those with those needs right now.