Homelessness is everywhere
For those who think Prince George has a huge problem with the homeless, how they are everywhere in the downtown core, diving in dumpsters for recycling and other valuables, hitting up pedestrians for change, loitering in front of soup kitchens and sleeping in various nooks and crannies, please pay a visit to Kelowna. A generation ago, Prince George and Kelowna were on roughly equal footing. Kelowna had slightly more people, better weather and lots more tourists but Prince George had its own standalone university, lots of good-paying jobs in the resource sector and was the obvious regional hub.
There is no comparison today. Prince George’s growth has been gradual but Kelowna’s has been explosive.
It now has double the population (and more like triple if West Kelowna, Peachland and Lake Country are included) and a booming economy. Downtown Kelowna is beautiful and thriving. When finished, One Water Street will add a 36-storey and a 29-storey retail and condominium complex to the city centre. The first building is already sold out.
Meanwhile, a separate 14-storey office and residential tower, Ellis Parc, is under construction across the street. Both of them are next to downtown Kelowna and will cast a shadow over Prospera Place, the downtown arena that is home to the Kelowna Rockets Western Hockey League team.
Wealth and prosperity can be seen everywhere, from the luxury boats on Okanagan Lake, the expensive sports cars on city streets, the countless high-end golf courses and the massive mansions on the surrounding mountains, their occupants enjoying million-dollar views of the valley.
It’s not paradise, of course. Average home prices in the Central Okanagan are double what they are in Prince George, the traffic is brutal, the folksy friendliness has been replaced by urban reserve (insert snootiness here) and the region’s historical roots in agriculture, not just fruit and vegetable farms but cattle ranching as well, are being drowned by high-end wineries.
And then there are the homeless. In Prince George, they are largely con- fined to the downtown.
In Kelowna, they are everywhere, as numerous and multiplying as the new residential developments with pretentious names rising out of the ground.
Over the Easter weekend, when overnight temperatures were around freezing, the homeless in Kelowna could be found next to shopping malls, gas stations, apartment buildings and seniors retirement communities.
They could be found camping in city parks, under bridges, huddled in empty lots and along walking trails and creeks, in the downtown core and in residential areas.
Like here, Kelowna residents complain and demand something be done.
Like here, multiple government and nonprofit agencies work together to provide assistance, knowing the problem would be far worse without their efforts.
Like here, most people, regardless of their political beliefs, know that policing isn’t the answer, that the homeless can’t be arrested away.
Unlike here, a huge congregation of the Kelowna homeless can always be found on Leon Avenue, around the Gospel Mission centre and the men’s shelter for meals, food vouchers, clothes and other aid.
Across Abbott Street, they gather in pockets under the trees at City Park to sit, to visit or to sleep.
Meanwhile, a short walk down Water Street, past Kelowna City Hall, the yacht club, the community theatre, the court house, the art gallery, Prospera Place, the Grand Okanagan Resort, the dolphins fountain and the entrance to Waterfront Park, lies One Water Street. The starting price there for a 442 square foot studio apartment (to put that size in context, a king-size mattress by itself covers roughly 42 square feet) is $300,000. The sub-penthouse suites, ranging in size from 1,600 to 2,600 square feet each, start at $2.1 million. Those are last fall’s prices, too.
Monthly strata and parking fees will be extra, of course.
If anyone in Prince George thinks economic development, population growth and prosperity would diminish the city’s homelessness issues, Kelowna is living proof that the opposite outcome is far more likely.
If anyone in Prince George thinks economic development, population growth and prosperity would diminish the city’s homelessness issues, Kelowna is living proof that the opposite outcome is far more likely.