Encampments here to stay in Saskatoon until housing crisis fixed, front-line workers say
University Bridge remains closed after fire; inspection scheduled for Wednesday
A major bridge closing to vehicles is just another symptom of a housing crisis forcing more people into unsafe living conditions, an advocate for unhoused people in Saskatoon says.
University Bridge remained closed to vehicle traffic Tuesday after a Sunday night fire damaged a sewer line. The bridge will have to pass an inspection scheduled for Wednesday morning before it reopens.
Encampment fires are the result of a housing crisis and government inaction, said Stephanie Watson, a volunteer with SAGE Clan Patrol, a group that meets unhoused people and hands out donated supplies.
"We're seeing an increase in people becoming unhoused due to the lack of safe housing and affordable housing, and that number is just going to continue to increase because it takes time to build infrastructure," Watson said during an interview with Saskatoon Morning on Tuesday.
Watson said the crisis should be treated with the urgency of a "natural disaster," with a focus on quick solutions such as more emergency shelters instead of more studies.
On Tuesday, city crews cleaned up frozen wastewater that spilled out of the damaged sewer line. Workers hooked up a temporary bypass line on Monday, according to a city news release.
The south-side walkway was open to pedestrian traffic Tuesday, but the north-side walkway remained closed. The Meewasin Trail under the eastside of the bridge and the far west-side walkway under the bridge were closed, but the Meewasin Trail on the west-side along Spadina Crescent was open.
This is the second time in two years a suspected encampment fire closed University Bridge. In June 2023, flames from a mattress fire under the bridge got into a confined space and eventually reached an underside area of the bridge deck that had exposed wooden forms used for repairs more than 50 years prior.
Fire officials identified the encampment as a possible source of this week's fire based on evidence at the scene, said assistant fire chief Yvonne Raymer on Tuesday in an interview with Saskatoon Morning. A fire inspector was expected on scene Tuesday to determine an official cause.
"There have been assumptions based on the amount of belongings that were identified, some backpacks, some needles, but no sleeping material was there, such as pillows and blankets or sleeping bags or even a tent," Raymer said.
"Our fire investigator hasn't actually got into the area of what we would call the origin of the fire to actually do a scene exam."
Homelessness is on the rise in Saskatoon, according to a recent point in time count. The count found 1,499 unhoused people in Saskatoon on a single day in October last year.
The fire department was called to 1,255 encampments in the city in 2024, Raymer said on Tuesday. In December, the fire department said there were 200 more encampments in Saskatoon last year compared to 2023.
Watson said Saskatoon's two overnight warm-up centres are great, but opened too late in the season and aren't completely inclusive. The warm-up centre at St. Mary's is for men only, while the Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre's warm-up space is only for women.
"That leaves our trans and two-spirit relatives not knowing which space to go to that is safe for them," Watson said.
"It makes my heart break, because there is just not enough places for the amount of people who need a safe place to go. And people are doing the best they can with the resources they have at hand and they're choosing very risky situations."
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With files from Saskatoon Morning