2022 Saskatoon Point-in-Time Homelessness Count

Making sure that “everyone counts” in Point-in-Time (PIT) Homelessness Counts is a key resource to address homelessness and support efforts to ensure that all Saskatoon residents have access to safe, affordable, and appropriate housing. Indigenous people continue to be impacted disproportionately and many households face high levels of precariousness and risk of homelessness—a reality that the COVID-19 pandemic has made starkly visible. Despite housing as a human right being recognized by international covenant and the 2019 National Housing Strategy Act, the health crisis has combined with such shadow epidemics as isolation, technology deficits, and food insecurity to aggravate vulnerabilities and leave many with nowhere safe to go and the heightened visibility of street homelessness. PIT Homelessness Counts gather data to help understand factors in homelessness, to give a human face to the statistics, and to help design and implement effective program and policy investments and interventions. The fifth Saskatoon PIT Homelessness Count—and second as part of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)’s Reaching Home national coordinated PIT Count— including an indoor and outdoor enumeration, streets needs assessment, and public perception survey, was held in Saskatoon on April 28, 2022.