Regina outreach team gets provincial funding to expand supports for homeless people outside downtown

An outreach team for vulnerable people in Regina is expanding its services beyond the city's downtown core, thanks to new provincial funding aimed at improving public safety and services for people who are homeless.

The Saskatchewan government has granted the Regina Street Team $205,000 in pro-rated funding this year and will provide up to $325,000 in annualized funding next year, Minister of Social Services Gene Makowsky announced on Thursday.

The outreach program, which officially launched in May as an initiative of the Regina Downtown Business Improvement District (RDBID), currently responds five days a week to non-emergency calls for assistance from people who are homeless or experiencing a mental health crisis.

As a first point of contact for vulnerable people, it also co-ordinates with businesses and community organizations to support holistic access to services including treatment and recovery, detox and stabilization care, shelter spaces and permanent housing, according to a release from the ministry.

Jason Knudsen, one of the team members, said italready gets calls for help from all over the city, but doesn't have the resources to respond.

"We're just looking forward to being able to do more and help more," he said at Thursday's announcement.

Mayor Sandra Masters lauded the move as "a very good investment" that will ensure "the public can enjoy public space and businesses can thrive."

She said the city is seeing a rise in visible substance use and homelessness, and needs to take a balanced approach to supporting vulnerable people and ensuring people feel safe.

"We need to connect folks to counselors and to treatment, but there are also the crisis needs of, we need to make sure food, water, shade, shelter and those types of things are also addressed," she told reporters on Thursday.

"To create trust in relationships is massively important for moving folks along the continuum [of care]."

Makowsky said the team is "an important resource" and supporting it was a "natural fit" with the government's "all of the above" approach to improving public safety and investing in social services. The funding is part of $665,000 the province vowed to spend in the most recent budget on improving access to special services.

Masters said the street team has helped to reduce social disorder downtown and provides a non-police alternative response to non-criminal calls downtown, freeing-up police resources.

It also helps the city report back on what is and isn't working for people trying to access services, she added, a critical part of ensuring the right kinds of supports are available to those who need them.

"There are barriers that exist and that could be identification, that could be outstanding utility payments, it it could be a breadth of issues," Masters said. "When we're able to quantify those and take them back, that's how you change the system."