488 people experiencing homelessness in Regina in latest count

Camp Hope, an outdoor camp for those experiencing homelessness, was taken down in November 2021 and moved to an emergency shelter. (Wayne Mantyka/CTV News)

There are 488 people described as experiencing homelessness in the City of Regina. This finding is according to Flow Community Projects – which says a group of community members conducted a point-in-time (PiT) count of homelessness in September.

Flow Community Projects is a local social organization that, according to its website, partners with government, non-profits and private sector agencies to improve the community.

The organization's point-in-time count helped determine the extent of homelessness in a single point in time. The Regina PiT count focused on three components; a sheltered count, a street count and a magnet event.

Both the sheltered and street counts took place on Sept. 22 from 8 to 11 p.m.

During the street count, 115 volunteers walked the streets and offered an anonymous housing survey to anyone they saw. Seventy-eight people were believed by volunteers to be experiencing homelessness but didn’t complete the survey.

Seventy-one people said they were experiencing unsheltered homelessness, with a large majority staying in a public place, while a few said they were staying in a vehicle.

During the sheltered count, the same survey was offered to people by staff of the facility. Ninety-nine people were identified by staff at a facility to be experiencing sheltered homelessness.

The magnet event was held at the Mamaweyatitan Centre from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. the following day. Volunteers offered the same survey as they did during the street count but participants were asked where they stayed the night before to better reflect the count.

In order to avoid any duplication, those who participated were asked the first initials of their first and last names in addition to the last two digits of the year they were born.

The last PiC count was conducted back in 2018 with 286 identifying themselves as experiencing homelessness, that’s an increase of 202 over the past 4 years.

The full report is scheduled to be released in late January or early February of 2022.