SASKATOON — Volunteering for Saskatoon’s PiT Count left Saskatoon Indian & Métis Friendship Centre’s executive director Michelle King shaken as she saw the human reality behind the city’s soaring homelessness numbers.
King wears many hats. Aside from being the mayor of the town of Clavet, about 30 kilometres southeast of the city, she is also the vice-president of the Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Board of Directors and occasionally a public speaker on education-related issues.
Despite her busy life, she still found time to volunteer for the Point-in-Time Count, an experience she said struck her in a deeply personal way, as she witnessed firsthand the staggering crisis of homelessness the city is experiencing. The results were released last month, showing a 432 increase from 1,499 in 2024 to 1,931 this year.
The PiT Count was conducted in October to give officials a glimpse of homelessness in Saskatoon, with SHIP among the partners that collected the data. Of the 1,931, 725 were unsheltered, while 151 were living in encampments across the city, and 771 were either staying in emergency shelters or transitional homes. There were also 47 who were in other systems, and 237 experiencing hidden homelessness.
King said nothing prepared her for what she is witnessing. They are seeing record numbers of people visiting the Friendship Centre each year, and she knows every neighbourhood in the city is affected.
"Encampments are torn down. The Friendship Centre is there on the front lines, helping relocate people and supporting them until they're transitioned out of those encampments. They exist everywhere. Encampments formed because people sought safety in numbers, yet those spaces were regularly dismantled. Each time one was torn down, the Friendship Centre stepped in again, helping people relocate and survive another night in uncertain conditions. Working in the community means seeing the human reality behind the statistics,” said King.
She added that officials should provide housing strategies to address the crisis in communities, which informed the PiT Count data, where people are often seen walking in neighbourhoods, staying in alleys, or standing in front of various businesses. Staff of organizations like the Friendship Centre are feeling the weight as they find ways to assist those in need.
The Friendship Centre, like any non-profit, relies solely on donations and volunteers to help people have a safe and warm place to stay as the weather continues to drop. Winter clothes, coats, socks and underwear, which some people take for granted, have become an essential item for homeless people to keep warm as they walk the streets to reach another volunteer-run facility.
King said that even though the Friendship Centre is not a permanent housing shelter or offering treatment programs, they still do what they can to help people get the support they need to survive the extreme cold days. The centre is one of the city’s warming locations that can accommodate 100 to 200 people, before turning into an overnight warming centre.
She and the Friendship Centre staff often feel emotionally drained. Still, they are determined to provide the resources they have, adding that the system should change to help people get out of their situation.
For her, the PiT Count isn’t about the numbers; it showed that the community is dealing with a crisis, and King hopes that by telling these stories, real change could begin.
