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Saskatchewan
A Prince Albert nonmigratory is frustrated with stateless radical surviving successful the woods down his location on the Rotary Trail successful Prince Albert's River presumption neighborhood. The metropolis has begun tracking the fig of encampments and says 371 person been reported to day this year, 89 per cent of which person been dismantled.
City seeks a equilibrium betwixt disrupting encampments and supporting susceptible people
Lisa Risom · CBC News
· Posted: Nov 07, 2025 6:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 11 hours ago
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Prince Albert homeowner Clark Torgundson says stateless encampments are making him and different Riverview residents consciousness unsafe.
“People successful the vicinity don’t privation their kids walking connected the trails present due to the fact that of what lurks successful the bushes. You know, you don’t cognize what benignant of drugs they’re connected what they’re going to do,” helium said.
Torgundson’s backyard faces the Rotary Trail and wooded country adjacent the city’s off-leash canine park. He’s lived successful his location for 15 years and says implicit the past twelvemonth and a fractional he’s had respective antagonistic confrontations with radical surviving successful the wooded area.
Garbage, vandalism, theft and hollering astatine each hours of the nighttime are immoderate of the complaints helium reported to the metropolis and his Ward 4 councillor, helium said.
“I ended up cleaning and taking a full truckload of garbage to the dump myself and present they’re backmost mounting up campy a small spot again. And they’ve had respective fires lately, truthful it’s conscionable frustrating.”
WATCH | City of Prince Albert struggles with stateless encampments: City of Prince Albert struggles with stateless encampments
The occurrence section came to the country doubly this twelvemonth to woody with fires that dispersed to the trees and grass.
Camping connected metropolis spot is prohibited.
Torgundson said getting escaped of municipality woodlands is not the answer. He would similar the metropolis to regularly cheque the country to forestall radical from moving backmost in.
He'd besides similar the metropolis and the state to enactment unneurotic to assistance the unhoused, but doesn’t judge a caller mobile outreach squad and analyzable needs installation volition lick the matter, helium said.
“A batch of those radical surviving that manner [have] got to privation to change, and they’re not going to alteration due to the fact that they person a lukewarm furniture astatine nighttime. I deliberation determination needs to beryllium antithetic programs than 24 hours, 'Here you go, spot you later, get a furniture and a meal.' Do I cognize the answer? I don’t cognize the full answer. ”
Dustyn Korecki is 1 of the radical whose tents person been taken down.
“They really bulldozed my structure over, with my heater and generator successful it. Just threw it successful the dump … I had to re-start implicit everything,” Korecki said.
His little legs were amputated and helium uses a wheelchair. He’s been stateless for implicit 2 years owed to his cause addiction, helium said.
He’s been connected a waiting database for the YWCA Homeward Bound lodging programme for implicit six months and volition proceed to campy retired successful Prince Albert until helium finds a much imperishable shelter, helium said.
"Municipalities are having to navigate this good enactment betwixt disrupting encampments and supporting folks that are astir vulnerable, and I don't deliberation there's a cleanable answer," said Anna Dinsdale, the City of Prince Albert’s assemblage information and well-being coordinator.
Two years ago, with the assistance of a national grant, the metropolis began tracking stateless encampment numbers. To day successful 2025, 371 encampments person been reported, including 54 past month. Forty-eight of those person been dismantled by the city’s bylaw and sanitation departments.
Dinsdale said mobile outreach groups from the community, specified arsenic the Prince Albert Métis Women’s Association Street Outreach Services, travel metropolis workers erstwhile encampments are taken down to connection assistance to the radical surviving there.
The state provided $131,000 to money the outreach work from Sept. 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025.
“We cognize that our effect is balancing disruption and connecting radical to services, but truly what we request to bash is marque definite we are moving much upstream, what we telephone upstream, to summation opportunities for radical to entree services and also forestall radical from becoming stateless successful the archetypal place,” Dinsdale said.
Mayor Bill Powalinsky said helium hopes the caller analyzable needs installation volition person an impact.
“It’s not astir providing shelter. It's astir providing an intervention. And alternatively of throwing radical into jailhouse and past releasing them onto the street, which is precise unproductive. Our constabulary unit are not equipped to grip analyzable societal and wellness issues.”
Prince Albert has 101 structure beds: 14 for younker and 30 for women and children done the YWCA, 22 astatine Our House structure and 35 astatine the Prince Albert Grand Council Relatives Lodge.
The Ministry of Social Services said the state spent implicit $2.1 cardinal to code the needs of stateless radical successful Prince Albert successful 2025-26, including enactment for 2 exigency shelters and thoroughfare outreach.
The ministry said the state and the metropolis are collaborating to make a caller structure installation adjacent the accumulation grounds, and discussing enactment for the city's acold upwind strategy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lisa Risom has 2 decades of multimedia journalism acquisition successful northeast Saskatchewan. She joined CBC Prince Albert successful 2025.
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