Nov. 22 marks National Housing Day across Canada with the goal of bringing attention to housing challenges and homelessness — something all too evident in Saskatchewan.
Housing advocates with Camponi Housing Corp. in Saskatoon say finding an affordable place to call home for people in need is top of mind at their organization.
“It’s a human right, it really is,” Camponi board chair Desiree Chartier said. “I think everyone deserves to have a home to call their own.”
Camponi trustee Angela Bishop said there are approximately 850 people and families on the organization’s waitlist, a number that has increased in recent months. That trend is a growing concern for advocates like Camponi, especially with only a handful of vacancies in the city at a time.
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“To get through a list of over 800, it would take decades,” Bishop said.
Bishop said the organization sees a significant number of Indigenous people without housing due to the impacts of intergenerational trauma. Chartier said they are making the application process as barrier-free as possible, with wraparound services for those who continue to wait.
“[We’re] really providing those supports from the time of their application, and then on as tenants, and continuing on after that.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged National Housing Day in a statement, saying in part that, “Canada’s housing market just hasn’t been working. Ask anyone you know, and they’ll say it hasn’t worked for decades. Put simply, the cost to build homes is too high, and the time it takes to finish projects is too long.”
Trudeau also said his government’s Housing Accelerator Fund is a “transformative program that partners with communities across the country to speed-up housing construction.”
Saskatoon receiving $41.3 million from the fund, with the money being put towards speeding up housing development in areas near transit and the downtown core.
Bishop and Chartier are hopeful more can be done at all levels of government to address an ever-growing crisis.
“We’re frontline, we’re on the ground, we’re doing all that work, we’re seeing all the need for sure.”
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