Advocate calls exclusion of homelessness initiative from city budget ‘an affront to democracy’

Peter Gilmer said he was at the meeting in June when Regina’s city council passed a motion to have the cost of a housing-first plan included in the next year’s draft budget, and he’s shocked it’s not there now.

“It’s absolutely shocking and, frankly, it’s an affront to democracy,” said Gilmer of the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry.

The plan would use a housing-first and supportive-housing model to try to end homelessness in the Queen City. With the passing of the motion, Gilmer said he’d understood that meant there would be significant resources put toward it in the city budget.

But city administration did not include it in the draft budget, released Tuesday, explaining it couldn’t recommend such an expensive project and felt other levels of government should bear some of the cost.

“The fact that they’ve completely contradicted a unanimous decision by city council June 15 is very disturbing,” said Gilmer.

Two city councillors — one on behalf of the other — have filed a court application to force the initiative into the draft budget.

Gilmer called the situation around homelessness and those near homelessness in Regina a crisis.

Between its figure for the capital cost and annual operating expenses to house 488 homeless people in Regina — the number from the last point-in-time homelessness count in fall 2021 — city administration found the project would add about $40 a month to the average home’s property taxes in the city in 2023 alone.

Gilmer thinks the administration’s numbers are high, but the costs of not doing anything are high as well.

“Even that would be a small price to pay in terms of all the social and financial costs that are involved in allowing homelessness to continue at the level that it presently is. I think the long-term consequences of not moving now are significant,” he explained.

Gilmer thinks the amount that has been requested is reasonable and that the city can make significant movement on support housing and the housing-first model that is financially responsible.

“The financial factors really have to be secondary to all the human and social costs here,” said Gilmer.

When asked about other levels of government, Gilmer said the big concern at a provincial level is the inadequacy of present support systems and current social housing. He believes housing is a responsibility for all levels of government, and a key area for the municipal level would be supportive housing and wrap-around supports.

“For years, mayors and members of council have talked about housing first and the need for more supportive housing and this seems like the ideal place to be investing at a municipal level,” said Gilmer.

Gilmer said he’ll be pushing for the initiative to be added to the budget as the council deliberations get closer, set for Dec. 14 and possibly the next two days.