Awareness of homelessness in Saskatchewan has been growing and it's becoming more apparent in Moose Jaw.

Multiple organizations continuously help the homeless population in the city, such as Riverside Mission, the Square 1 group, the Salvation Army, the John Howard Society of Saskatchewan (JHSS), and many more.

The JHSS started a program in May of 2019 called the My Place Program which has grown from having 1 caseworker to having 3 caseworkers. The program assists vulnerable people in finding safe housing and resources such as food security, addiction treatment, mental health help, and employment help to assist these people in getting back on track.

"We try and support people in absolutely any area that we can. We meet people where they are in their journeys," says Jody Oakes, Branch manager of the JHSS.

The program has seen growth within the homeless community especially within the last year.

"If things keep going the way they are our (referral) numbers are going to be doubled from the first year we had started this program," says Oakes.

The JHSS's scheduled year starts in April and just within the last 7 months, the My Place Program in Moose Jaw has received around 70 applicants which is already much more than what the program saw in the entirety of last year, according to Oakes.

The program gets referrals from multiple different outlets. They see self-referrals, family-referrals, they get referrals from other local organizations and Oakes says that the pandemic and the coming winter months all play a role in the increase in referrals and the homelessness numbers but there has been a continued steady growth over the last couple of years.

Oakes sheds light on how homelessness isn't just seen on the streets.

"There's a lot of hidden homelessness I think in our community. That could be couch surfing, that could be (someone) just not saying that 'I'm homeless' and we do have people that are on the streets all the time at any given day... We do have people who are on the streets who people just don't see," says Oakes.

Since homelessness is a growing issue not only in Moose Jaw but across Saskatchewan, our city has begun to notice the effects of homelessness and how it's connected with multiple other social issues that our community faces.

Moose Jaw's property crime rate within the last year has increased by 13 per cent and the methamphetamine drug rates have increased by 283 per cent. Mental illness has also been a large topic within Moose Jaw for quite some time. Oakes shared that all of these issues plus homelessness are all connected with each other. Usually, when you have one aspect, you have one of the other ones as well. Another thing that occurs is a lack of potential workers. Finding employment while homeless has proven to be very difficult.

"I always explain homelessness as kind of a Jenga game... when Jenga falls all of those pieces are scattered and that's kind of (how) homelessness (works)... we can build that base of Jenga again, build that very first piece with the food security and with having that safe affordable place to live," says Oakes

Oakes also talked about the cost of homelessness and how that affects the community. Money that goes into hospital and health care costs as well as policing and jail costs could all be put toward accessible housing and resources for the homeless community. Oakes says that putting more financial focus on those resources will create noticeable savings on the health and policing departments when it comes to dealing with homeless cases. 

According to Oakes, housing plays a big factor in the situation because accessible and affordable housing is scarce in the city. 

Awareness of the growing homeless population is bringing light to the increasing severity of the situation and how it's connected with multiple other social issues that Moose Jaw and many other communities continue to try and handle.

For anyone that would like to get in contact with the My Place Program there are 3 phone numbers, one for each caseworker, and an email that people can use:

306- 690-9384
306- 630-3890
306-630-7081
Email: myplace@sk.johnhoward.ca