Homelessness is but a few blocks away

Photo reportage by Evelyn Tischer, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

It looks like a beautiful camping ground, but it’s a homeless encampment in Regina’s Core Community Park, nicknamed Pepsi Park.

 

Homeless encampment in Regina’s Core Community Park

So that it looks a bit like a home

A first homeless camp appeared there in October 2021 and was dismantled one month later.

In 2023, according to a survey by Habitat for Humanity Canada, 40% of Canadians worried about being able to pay their rent or mortgage, and 49% spent at least half of their household income on housing.

On March 26, 2025, Regina City Council declared a houselessness crisis, and during summer 2026, an encampment has again been growing in Pepsi Park.

Turtle Town

Homeless on our homeland

Community organizer Mandla Mthembu states that “there are people in tents, there are people living outside all across the city, all across different neighbourhoods…” and gives the lack of “accessible, adequate, and affordable housing” as the cause of homelessness.

As I walked the few blocks between the homeless camp and the city’s center, where banks are, I was struck by how close the two are, both in time and in space. Maybe this is what makes our common humanity: None of us is very far from poverty, illness, or rejection.

Just a few blocks away

Evelyn Tischer