City won’t follow Kelowna’s lead designating a park for homeless
Don’t expect Penticton to follow Kelowna’s lead in designating a park where homeless people are encouraged to camp.
“Hard no,” said Coun. Katie Robinson when the topic came up Monday at the Safety and Security Advisory Committee meeting.
“Yes, it’s been discussed, but there’s no appetite to entertain that at all.”
Kelowna’s approach to homeless encampments was among those discussed at Monday’s meeting, which received a highlevel review of Penticton’s tactics from Blake Laven, the city’s director of development services.
Laven said Kelowna’s designated park, which opened in spring 2021 along a rail trail in the downtown’s north end, is open nightly and campers are required to leave each morning.
Daily cleanups, on-site security and other costs associated with the site ring in at around $30,000 per month, according to Laven.
“By designating this area, what it does is allow Kelowna bylaw officers to take a really hard stance on inappropriate use of space elsewhere in the community,” he continued, citing examples like the former tent city on Leon Avenue.
But the site hasn’t solved Kelowna’s homelessness issues and Laven doesn’t believe Penticton needs to follow in its larger neighbour’s footsteps.
While he acknowledged B.C. Supreme Court
rulings have affirmed people’s right to camp in parks when no shelter beds are available, Laven believes there is still sufficient capacity in Penticton shelters.
Also, “you’re creating demand when you have that (designated) space in the community,” said Laven.
“If we create tons more shelter space and more opportunities for camping, we’ll be inundated. We know that for a fact.”
That’s why the city intends to carry on with its current approach to encampments on municipal lands, which is aimed at ensuring they don’t become permanent fixtures. That work involves daily visits from bylaw officers with offers to connect campers with services, followed by warning notices and deadlines to clear out, and finally cleanup.
Such an operation last month, conducted in partnership with ambassadors from ASK Wellness, which operates two supportive housing facilities in Penticton, saw a boat used to haul a mountain trash from a campsite on Okanagan Lake about 500 metres northeast of the Penticton Tennis Club.
Laven said such encampments offer residents — some of whom have been banned from local shelters – a sense of safety and community, but run counter to the B.C. government’s goal of getting people indoors by investing heavily in new shelters and social housing.
But that approach has not been without challenges.
“It seems a very logical way to do it, but at the same time you’re dealing with neighbourhoods and existing areas and trying to find lands and operators.… Then you have individuals with really complex needs who don’t necessarily fit within the shelters,” explained Laven.
“It’s an interesting time right now with the massive amount of homelessness we’re seeing and this policy change from the provincial government.”
Committee member Susan Greba, a former Crown prosecutor, suggested the missing link is still mental health supports.
“I think its significant, because the mental health issues don’t belong in jail and they don’t belong in the courts,” said Greba.
“Hard times and mental health are different things. People don’t grow up and say I want to be homeless when I grow up or be a drug addict.”