Oct. 27, 2021/Lance Protz
In July of 2019, the Saskatchewan Party announced its plans to end two social assistance programs which many low-income residents have relied on to secure housing and basic necessities. The two programs would be replaced with a simplified program known as the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program which came into effect in August of 2021. When the SIS program was announced in 2019, the Saskatchewan NDP predicted that the changes to social assistance benefits would result in an increase of homelessness in the province; with the changes now in full effect, that dire prediction has come to fruition.
The difference between the old programs and the new is that the previous programs paid rent and utilities directly to landlords and utility companies on behalf of those receiving benefits, along with an additional shelter and living allowance of $255. The new SIS program, on the other hand, provides a payout directly to the individual in the form of a base shelter allowance of $575 and a living allowance of $285. This is a massive cut when considering that the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Regina or Saskatoon will cost around $900 per month, without utilities. The change in Saskatchewan’s social assistance benefits happens to coincide with the ending of the federal Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), which expired on Oct. 23. To make things worse, the cost of living has skyrocketed, with the Canadian inflation rate increasing to 4.4 percent as of September 2021—the highest it has been in 20 years, with economists predicting it will continue to rise. With the drastic increase in cost for basic necessities, along with inflated rental prices, the Saskatchewan Party has shown it would rather ignore the people most vulnerable and leave them to fend for themselves.
In 2019 Saskatchewan NDP MLA Carla Beck explained, “Now we’ve rolled the utilities right into the shelter benefit without accounting for actual costs.” The Saskatchewan Party government clearly had no desire to listen to the opposition and followed through with their ill planned changes anyway. As of Aug. 31, 2021, the old social assistance programs were officially cut off, with 16,454 people now receiving benefits through the SIS program. Within one month of the transition, 31 per cent of recipients were unable to pay their rent for the month of September, leaving thousands of Saskatchewan residents facing eviction and homelessness.
On Oct. 13, Saskatchewan Party MLA and Minister of Social Services Lori Carr stated, “The program is in its infancy” and “The program has been designed for ease for the clients so they have options to apply.” After only a month of the program coming into full force, recipients of the SIS program now have to choose whether they attempt to pay rent or go hungry.
In response to the immediate adverse effects caused by the inadequacy of the current social assistance program, community activists and several people who have already lost their homes set up camp on Oct. 8 in Pepsi Park, Regina. The new tent community is named Camp Marjorie, after a homeless woman with that name who died of an overdose in Victoria Park two days prior. Camp Marjorie has continued to grow in size, even with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services scrambling to direct residents elsewhere. As of Oct. 26, 71 tents have been set up with as many as 100 people sleeping in the camp every night. Although many people have been relocated to alternative shelter, their living situation will slightly improve for only a short time. In most cases these people have been housed in hotels temporarily, and will most likely end up back at Camp Marjorie. This is entirely unnecessary, as the Regina Housing Authority, which provides social housing for residents in need, owns approximately 3,000 housing units, 740 of which are currently vacant and could facilitate all of those currently experiencing homelessness in the city. There is word that with so many people relying on the SIS program and unable to pay rent, Saskatchewan residents will likely see a tent camp established in the city of Saskatoon in the coming weeks.
Meara Conway, Saskatchewan NDP MLA and critic for Social Services, Housing, spoke at Camp Marjory on Oct. 13 saying, “We are currently facing a crisis, and it is a crisis of the government’s own making… This was a slow-moving car crash that everyone around me has been warning the government about since 2019.” The NDP are right to criticize the Saskatchewan Party in relation to their blatant disregard for those requiring social assistance. The changes are designed to save the government time and cut funds to those receiving benefits, and have resulted in economic hardship. Moreover, since the old program paid rent and utilities directly to the landlord and utility company, recipients did not need a chequing account or personal identification to access the benefit. Now that the administrative burden has been placed solely on the people seeking the benefit, they must ensure that they have all of the required documentation before setting up accounts with landlords and utilities companies, creating an additional barrier.
Along with the Saskatchewan NDP, the Saskatchewan Landlords Association (SLA) is also criticizing the Saskatchewan Party government’s SIS program—but not for empathetic or compassionate reasons. With so many people in the province no longer paying rent, landlords are only concerned about loss in revenue. They only want to have the previous social assistance programs reinstated so they can continue making a profit by receiving government-guaranteed income.
Premier Scott Moe has yet to comment on the growing concern of homelessness in the province and the establishment of a tent community in the city of Regina, hoping the situation will resolve itself.
Tent communities are not a new problem. Last month in a press release, it was revealed that the City of Toronto spent almost $2 million to evict homeless people camped in Moss Park; showing that politicians are willing to spend huge amounts of money in an attempt to sweep away the problem of homelessness rather than fix it. It is not surprising that Toronto, being the largest city in Canada, would have tent communities, but few would have ever expected one to be established in a small Prairie city like Regina. But it has now happened as a direct result of cuts by the Saskatchewan Party government.
It is not enough to denounce the inadequacies of the Saskatchewan Income Support program and ask to have the previous social assistance programs reinstated. While those programs were better, they subsidized landlords while those receiving benefits received just enough to live. The Saskatchewan NDP must mobilize support and take to the streets for a campaign to demand that all residents experiencing homelessness are housed immediately, with a ban on evictions to stop the bleeding. With more than 700 vacant social housing units available in Regina, all residents of Camp Marjorie in need must be provided a housing unit by the Regina Housing Authority. The NDP must also fight to expropriate rich landlords and ensure guaranteed social housing for all those in need. No one should ever be forced to live in a tent, and certainly not while living in a city filled with vacant homes.
