‘This is all we have’
Dozens gather downtown in support of shelter
Gusty winds made tent setups difficult for roughly 100 people who attended a rally in support of the homeless Friday afternoon in a downtown Penticton park, although the organizer was quick to note some of the city’s most vulnerable will soon be at the mercy of the weather 24 hours a day.
“We’re doing this by choice. So many people don’t have a choice,” said Desiree
Franz, who works at the winter shelter that’s been set up in the old Victory Church at 452 Winnipeg St. and is scheduled to close March 31.
She organized the rally to protest city council’s decision Tuesday to deny BC Housing a new temporary use permit that would have allowed the 42-bed shelter to stay in operation through March 2022.
“What the city has chosen to do is shocking. There’s no reason for them to deny the extension. The funding is from BC Housing. An agency in town will be running it.
There is nothing the city had to do except say yes – and we are asking them to say yes,” Franz said.
There were 14 tents pitched in Gyro Park about an hour into the rally, and Franz said it was a “small representation” of the homeless camp that may spring up when the old Victory Church closes.
Speakers included some of the people currently at the shelter, including Tim, who didn’t provide his surname.
Tim said the shelter’s overdose prevention site is vitally important during the opioid crisis, which killed 17 people last year in Penticton.
“We need that support to save our lives,” said Tim, who suggested the overdoses will keep happening without the shelter, but in parks and other spaces around the city.
Shelters also provide an important sense of community and an access point for services, he added.
“This is all we have,” said Tim.
The Penticton RCMP detachment issued a statement Thursday warning attendees that officers would be enforcing provincial health orders at the rally, but the three Mounties who attended Friday just watched from afar.
The former Victory Church was pressed into service Nov. 1 as a winter shelter due to COVID-19 space restrictions at the existing Compass House shelter.
Housing Minister David Eby suggested earlier this week he wanted to keep the shelter open permanently until new supportive housing units were built in Penticton, although that plan was apparently never presented to council.
Eby said BC Housing is now looking for a piece of land in Penticton owned by the province on which it could use a legislative hammer to override municipal bylaws and set up a camp. He also noted BC Housing has a stockpile of 1,000 tents and sleeping bags, some of which could be sent to Penticton if needed.
The unusual verbal spat between Penticton Mayor John Vassilaki and Housing Minister David Eby is part of democracy, Premier John Horgan says.
Horgan was asked Friday during a virtual press conference about the highly-publicized dispute between the two over the city’s refusal to extend by one year a temporary use permit for an emergency shelter operating out of a former Penticton church.
Dealing with issues like homelessness and substance use is a challenging process, Horgan suggested, and one that comes with a variety of viewpoints.
“I’ve asked Minister Eby to focus on a daunting task — to address homelessness crises not just in our major urban centres but, indeed, right across British Columbia,” Horgan said.
“We need to have more housing for folks that are hard to house, that are not finding a place to live, and therefore are out on the streets,” Horgan said.
The emergency homeless shelter at 352 Winnipeg St. was set to close
April 1, but B.C. Housing asked for a one-year extension from the city.
Councillors unanimously refused the request, saying there were public concerns about social disorder around the shelter and calling for more drug treatment facilities in Penticton.
After the council meeting, Eby said he was “profoundly disappointed and a bit baffled by the decision of city council and the mayor to unanimously vote to close an emergency shelter in the middle of a pandemic when everyone acknowledges there’s nowhere else for people to go.”
Eby and Vassilaki then had a telephone conversation and there are conflicting accounts of how that went.
Eby said Vassilaki hung up on him; Vassilaki said he ended the call because he couldn’t get a word in edgewise.
Eby said he told Vassilaki the government wanted to keep the emergency shelter open just until new supportive housing units were ready; Vassilaki responded that was “a big, fat lie.”
Before the call, Eby had suggested the government was prepared to ship 1,000 sleeping bags and tents to Penticton if the emergency shelter closes.
In response, Vassilaki said that Eby was engaging in “outrageous and inconsiderate” fear-mongering.
Horgan sought Friday to downplay the significance of the dispute between Eby and Vassilaki and suggested a resolution of some sort will be found.
“I’m hopeful that all elected representatives will work together for a common purpose. That’s the expectation of the public,” Horgan said.
“But there are times when disagreements become public and, again, that’s part and parcel of our democratic society,” he said.
“Engaging in debate and dialogue is normally constructive and I’m confident that this will be constructive at the end of the day,” Horgan said.