Regina photo project gives new perspective on homelessness

A new project is giving people a snapshot of what it’s like to be homeless in Regina.

Eight people who are either homeless or are struggling to find affordable housing were given cameras and told to capture their reality.

“There’s a lot of people struggling right now, I’m only one of them,” said Raymond Pewean, one of the participants who has been homeless for years.

Pewean said every day is a struggle.

“Well you got to find food, you got to find a place a stay at night. Otherwise you sleep outside. It’s kinda hard, but I’m still getting by,” he said.

Carmichael Outreach and Common Wheal Community Arts were inspired to start the photography project after a similar one started in Vancouver.

“It’s a project we feel is really important and needed so that people can really see, not just hear, but see what people experience as far as a lack of affordable housing,” said Gerry Ruecker, the southern artistic director for Common Wheal Community Arts.

Tyler Gray, from Carmichael Outreach, said he wants people in Regina to understand what being homeless is like.

“There’s people in our community that, literally, their entire experience is surviving one day to the next. Maybe just get us to a place where we don’t take for granted the things that we have and also are awakened to fight for those same opportunities for everyone in our community,” he said. “I think a keyhole view into what homelessness and poverty looks like.”

Pewean wants to remind people with his photographs that there are people struggling every day in the city.

“They know how life is down here for homeless people. I want to take a few pictures, that’s all, and show the world that’s all,” he said. “It’s supposed to be of my kind of life, and I’ve got a bad life.”

The City of Regina has offered a grant to cover materials, artist fees and food for the classes.

The photographs will be on display at an exhibition in December.