Most living on streets on Westside Aboriginal
Report on West Kelowna’s 1st count of homeless people says over 60% are Indigenous
A first-ever count of homeless people on the Westside has found 72 people either sleeping rough or in unstable accommodation.
And just over 60 per cent of those who were homeless when the survey was conducted in July were Indigenous people.
There are said to be at least 30 camps or temporary shelters in the City of West Kelowna and on the Westbank First Nation where people gather to sleep at night.
“Many of the ‘rough sleepers’ are camped in and around the Westbank United Church,” reads part of a report going to city council today.
Half of West Kelowna’s homeless population is said to be between the ages of 25 and 44. Eleven per cent were under 24, which is about half the national average.
Sixty-two per cent of the homeless on the Westside are men, and about half said they were previously in foster care or a group home.
“Research suggests a significant link between young people aging out of care and homelessness; almost 60 per cent of youth experiencing homelessness have had involvement with the child welfare system at some point in their lives,” the report to council states.
Almost half of the 72 homeless were unsheltered, meaning they were sleeping rough outside. About 20 per cent were staying at someone else’s place, and five per cent said they didn’t know where they would sleep the night the survey was conducted.
When asked why they were homeless, people cited these reasons most commonly: addiction or substance abuse, inability to pay rent, conflict with spouse, job loss, mental illness or a medical condition.
Of those with no permanent accommodation, 40 per cent said they’d been homeless for a year.
Almost two-thirds said they’d stayed in an emergency shelter, like one that operates out of a Westbank church through the winter or Kelowna’s Gospel Mission, within the last year.
A third of the respondents had lived on the Westside for more than 10 years, and another third had been there for between two and 10 years.
Like other communities, West Kelowna is grappling with what appears to be a growing problem of homelessness. The homeless count, similar to ones conducted previously in Kelowna, is said to be among the first steps in addressing the situation.
“The data presented in this report provides essential information about those experiencing homelessness and can be utilized to inform future decisions around housing, policy development, programming and supports for this most vulnerable population,” authors of the report state.