We know homelessness doesn’t end because we got better at managing its symptoms. It ends when people have somewhere stable to live and the support to stay there.
Saskatoon knows this all too well. Food banks, drop in centers, and shelters keep people alive day to day but they don’t get people out of the system that put them on the street. And waiting for the private market to lower rents on its own hasn’t worked here, and it isn’t going to start now.
What actually moves the needle is real investment in supportive and transitional housing, income support, education, eviction prevention programs like paying landlords directly, and wraparound care that catches someone before they end up on the street or back on it.
That’s not cheap, and no single government can carry it alone. It takes the Feds and the Province at the table with real dollars, and it takes genuine partnership with Indigenous organizations and Nations to replicate what’s working and end what’s failing.
So, none of that should mean writing a blank cheque. I’ve read the provincial homelessness plans with no measurable targets and no way for anyone outside government to check whether the money spent actually helped anyone. Public dollars spent anywhere deserve transparency to taxpayers, and spending millions each year and hoping the problem resolves itself isn’t compassion, it’s negligence dressed up as care.
If we want the public and other levels of government to keep investing at the scale this problem needs, we owe people clear, measurable and accountable targets, honest public accounting, and someone whose job it is to check the results.
Compassion gets people housed. Accountability keeps them housed, and keeps the public’s trust in the process.