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Saskatchewan’s new revenue help program is forcing individuals to stay on the streets as a result of fewer housing choices, dwindling advantages and extra bureaucratic purple tape, in keeping with one Regina social employee.
“I have been talking with shoppers who’re sleeping in automobiles and sheds,” mentioned Shannon Harvey-Benoit, a registered social employee with AIDS Packages South Saskatchewan in Regina, instructed Morning Version host Stefani Langenegger.
“Some are staying in tenting trailers or deserted homes as a result of there’s nowhere for them to go. There is not any reasonably priced housing, and even when they’re on this program, they cannot discover hire inside the constraints of what help is paying them.”
The Saskatchewan Earnings Help (SIS) program changed the Saskatchewan Help Program on Aug. 31.
Underneath the brand new SIS program, shoppers are allotted a shelter funds and should pay hire and utilities themselves every month from the cash they’re given.
Underneath SIS, a single adult receives $575 a month for shelter and utiltiies, and one other $285 a month for meals and all different bills. The most cost effective housing out there on Carmichael Outreach’s housing record was $650 for hire and utilites.
Beforehand, the province paid landlords immediately for hire and likewise coated utilities, making certain that housing prices did not fall into arrears and lead to evictions.
Anti-poverty advocates, social staff and SIS shoppers are blaming this system for a rise in homelessness within the province, prompting rallies with individuals demanding modifications in Regina and Saskatoon Wednesday.
“They’re placing the complete rental quantity within the palms of the shopper, which is to offer them extra autonomy over their cash. I perceive that. However not all of our shoppers are capable of handle their cash appropriately,” Harvey-Benoit mentioned.
In Regina, about 100 individuals are dwelling in tents in Pepsi Park at Camp Marjorie, which was established this fall to take care of the rising quantity of homeless individuals within the metropolis. An individual dwelling within the camp suffered a deadly overdose on Tuesday morning, according to one of the camp’s leaders.
Saskatchewan Minister of Social Providers Lori Carr mentioned she lately met with organizations supporting Camp Marjorie, which was named after a homeless Regina girl who died earlier this month
“All of us agree we don’t want to see individuals tenting outdoors because the climate will get colder. We’re working with the Metropolis of Regina and community-based organizations to find out potential options that may hold individuals heat and protected,” Carr mentioned in an emailed assertion.
Jeff Redekop, government director of revenue help with the Ministry of Social Providers, mentioned workers routinely go to the Camp Marjorie website and have moved 4 individuals into steady housing, and helped 28 individuals fill out functions for social housing.
“Since Oct. 12, we’ve supplied service to 127 people, together with functions to the Saskatchewan Earnings Help (SIS) and Saskatchewan Assured Earnings for Incapacity (SAID) applications,” Redekp mentioned in an emailed assertion.
Underneath SIS, landlords aren’t assured hire funds and are utilizing loopholes, like requiring a number of references, earlier than renting to SIS shoppers, Harvey-Benoit mentioned.
For individuals sofa browsing or dwelling a transient life, getting a listing of references is a major barrier to renting a house, Harvey-Benoit mentioned.
It is a mess.– Shannon Harvey-Benoit
Harvey-Benoit, who as a registered social employee is supposed to be spending her days coping with the opioid disaster, now finds her time consumed with serving to individuals navigate the SIS program.
“It is a mess. I do not assume that revenue help is absolutely arrange in a means to assist individuals achieve that stability of their lives.”
9:29Registered social employee sees firsthand the issues shoppers having accessing revenue help in Saskatchewan
Shannon Harvey-Benoit is a registered social employee at Aids Packages South Sask. Her job is to assist individuals with the opioid disaster, however lately she’s been attempting to get her shoppers signed up for the federal government’s revenue help program. 9:29
Equally irritating for shoppers and staff is that new SIS shoppers are now not given a social employee once they enrol in this system, she mentioned.
As an alternative, they have to name right into a centralized name centre which handles appointments and shopper considerations.
Harvey-Benoit mentioned there’s one quantity for all the province and no direct strains for particular person staff, and a missed appointment may lead to a shopper getting their advantages placed on maintain.
“I’ve referred to as with shoppers earlier than and been instructed we have been quantity 63 within the queue,” Harvey-Benoit mentioned.
“If their name volumes are too excessive …there is a recording that comes on. It says, ‘Sorry, we’re experiencing too excessive of name volumes. Please name again later’ and the road hangs up.”
SIS shoppers usually haven’t got easy accessibility to computer systems, electronic mail and even telephones, Harvey-Benoit mentioned, making an already tough course of practically not possible.
“If I’ve shoppers who are available within the afternoon and we name in, we simply know proper off the bat there isn’t any means that we’re getting in to talk to anybody as a result of the strains are simply so busy,” she mentioned.
Harvey-Benoit mentioned the province must return to the earlier technique of paying hire on to landlords and serving to cowl utilities to curb the present homeless disaster.
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