No charity on the path to Journey

Organization that helps homeless in Central Okanagan is unlikely to earn charitable status

An agency that helps Kelowna’s homeless is having funding difficulties, city council heard this week.

Journey Home Kelowna has not yet achieved its hoped-for charitable status, which would allow it to issue tax receipts for donations. And indications are it might never receive the designation because it doesn’t meet the necessary criteria, council heard.

Representatives of the Journey Home initiative, which has already received $300,000 in city funding, looked to council this week for an additional money. It had been designated a Priority 2 request by city managers, meaning funding was not recommended for the 2021 budget.

Mayor Colin Basran tried to elevate the cash plea to a Priority 1 request, saying homelessness is one of the city’s top issues, but other councillors were lukewarm.

While praising the work done by Journey Home, other councillors said they hadn’t received a business plan from the group that would explain precisely how the additional funding would be used.

Some councillors noted there are many other groups in Kelowna engaged in good causes which have not received anywhere near the level of funding already provided to Journey Home.

And there were concerns that, in its early days, Journey Home did not provide frequent or detailed briefs to council on how the money was being spent, although that situation is said to have been rectified.

Councillors will get a presentation from Journey Home representatives early in 2021 and it’s possible the requested funding could be approved before final adoption of the budget in the spring.

In addition to the $ 300,000 already provided to Journey Home, another $ 150,000 is already earmarked by the city for the group in 2021.

The group does not use the money to build housing units for homeless — building projects typically cost millions of dollars and are funded by the province — but its mandate is to oversee anti-homeless initiatives, engage in advocacy work, try to get funding from other partners, and monitor the success of efforts to move people into housing.

Despite not being able to issue tax receipts, in March 2019 Journey Home announced it had raised $1 million in its campaign to generate $2.7 million over five years.