"Homeless by a Wall" by garryknight is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The City of Saskatoon and the Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership have canceled the in person counting of unsheltered people for the Point-in-Time Count because of safety concerns.

The counting was set to go forward on October 6, with roughly 250 volunteers receiving training for the count.

After certain events in the last few weeks, the count will not move forward on the 6th. The City and SHIP cited safety concerns regarding potential protest activity affecting people participating in the count, as well as concerns regarding the systems and services offered to support people experiencing homelessness in Saskatoon.

The City will uses data points from previous Point-in-Time Counts, such as how many people are in emergency shelters, transitional housing and systems. The City will also work with the Saskatoon Fire Department to estimate the number of people living in encampments.

A big limitation of the new approach means the data collected won’t include information directly from people experiencing homelessness in Saskatoon.

The information used will help the City to understand homelessness in Saskatoon, and create more housing, health and community safety systems.

The thorough count, where volunteers both count and ask a survey, is still scheduled for 2027.