After more than two years of providing 24/7 care for people suffering with addictions, homelessness and abuse; All Nations Hope is shutting down a program called Awasiw.
CEO for Communities Alliances and Networks Margaret Kisikaw Piyesis said the program helps hundreds of people everyday it operates.
“We see 900 people in a 24 hour period walk through the doors of Awasiw on a regular basis, said Kisikaw Piyesis. “This is interesting in our community here in Regina, where are these 900 people gonna go in that 24 hour period?”
At the end of June, that program will close due to the lack of funding from all levels of government.
The program helped people like Patricia-Lynne Zastre recover from addictions.
“It was my lifeline when I had addictions and I had nowhere else to turn to,” she said.
According to Zastre, programs like Awasiw need to be open at night.
“At night that’s when everything starts to happen,” she explained. “Like people are waking up from having to sleep in a park.”
Kimberly Ackerman has been sober for three months and believes that the program shutting down will make the homelessness problem in Regina worse.
“People need somewhere to go and if they don’t have anywhere to go, they’re going to go sleep in houses that are abandoned or in people’s yards,” said Ackerman.
Kisikaw Piyesis added that the building itself provides a non-judgmental safe space.
“Having a place like us (to) drop in, rest up and get what they need like clean needles, access to testing, access to food, and access to that human support,” said Kisikaw Piyesis.
Jamie Toth, a spokesperson for the provincial government’s Ministry of Social Services, provided a statement to CTV News regarding the issue of funding to the Awasiw program.
The statement read:
“In December 2021, the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation announced the transfer of ownership for 2735 – 5th Avenue in Regina to All Nations Hope Network (ANHN) to support the organization in providing services to people in the community experiencing homelessness. The Ministry of Social Services has not received a request for funding from All Nations Hope over the past year.”
But Kisikaw Piyesis said Awasiw isn’t eligible for the same funding as other programs.
“We are a shelter but we don’t qualify under some of the rules and regulations of the province and the city to be termed a shelter,” she explained.
Going forward, Kisikaw Piyesis remains hopeful as ANHN is actively looking for different opportunities to help the community as well as different uses for the building the Awasiw program is currently housed in.