'It'll stick with me': Grade 6 class learns about homelessness from Saskatoon mayor
Students asked Cynthia Block what she's doing to tackle the issue
Students in a Saskatoon Grade 6 class got a chance Wednesday to grill the city's mayor on the homelessness crisis.
Melanie Wilkinson's class at Ecole Silverspring School has been studying homelessness on a global level. Mayor Cynthia Block visited the class Wednesday to discuss the issue in our own community.
"I wanted them to see the hope of homelessness," Wilkinson said. "I wanted them to think about empathy and learn empathy for others across the world, but also to connect it here, that it's not just something that happens across the world."
The class has been reading and analyzing a book called The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman, which follows the journey of two women in India and their struggle living out on the streets.
Students were tasked with diving deep into how homelessness is dealt with across the world. Posters filled the walls of the library where Block spoke, outlining solutions used in places like Boston, Ontario and Australia.
Block said she was so impressed with the research that she asked to take copies back to city hall to ponder.
The students weren't afraid to ask Block tough questions, like if race is a factor in homelessness, why some people don't access shelters and why they end up on the streets in the first place.
"They learned about something, they also decided they wanted to do something about it," Block said. "That's a transfer of knowledge that's happening in the classroom."
A 2024 point-in-time count for the city found 1,499 people facing homelessness in a single October day in Saskatoon. That number was up from 550 in 2022. Block told students that number has been on the rise since the pandemic.
"We were solitary, we were alone, there was a lot of inflation happening, people couldn't afford things." Block said. "Foundationally there's only one reason why people are homeless: it's because they can't afford a home."
Block told students that tackling the crisis is one of her main objectives as mayor, but that shelters may not be the solution.
She said she would like to see more housing initiatives started. Low-income housing would fall under provincial jurisdiction.
Students said the conversation with Block changed not only their view on the city, but on their community and privilege as a whole.
"I feel like it'll stick with me and I feel like it definitely affects the way I see things about Saskatoon," 11-year-old Zoe Szczerba said. "It's kind of brain chemistry changing stuff to learn. It's a really complex topic and I feel like we're really lucky to get to learn about it."
Block announced at the school that she will put forth a motion this week regarding homelessness, to be debated at city council next week.
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