Compassion, Accountability and a Safer Powell River
This is arguably one of the most important topics of this election. I believe very strongly in helping people, but first and foremost that help has to be appropriate for the individual who needs it while respecting the safety and well-being of the broader community.
Having housing and/or shelter available is important for everyone. I would never dispute that. But housing alone is not the solution. It solves some problems, yet depending on the type of housing, can create others. This is a very deep multifaceted issue. One size does not fit all. We all know that.
I do want to see everyone get help. Appropriate help. I want to see dry facilities that are closely monitored and properly managed. I also want people struggling with substance abuse to have options and support. The type of support provided should reflect the path each person is willing to take.
I don’t have the golden answer, no one does. If anyone did, we wouldn’t have this problem anymore. I have spent considerable time looking at what has and has not worked in other communities, and why some approaches produced better results than others. From that research, I have developed a multilayered plan that I believe could work here. Council cannot tell LIFT how to operate its facilities, but it can support developments that fit this model and work toward implementing the other elements.
The model comes from the basic understanding that housing alone isn’t the answer, and neither is law enforcement. We need both. Help the people who need help, but don't ignore behaviour that makes our community unsafe.
We need to intervene earlier and connect people who genuinely need help with shelter, treatment, housing and other supports. At the same time, we need consistent enforcement when it comes to violence, threats, vandalism, theft, open drug activity, obstruction and other unlawful behaviour.
Our families should feel comfortable taking their children to the park. Our seniors should feel safe walking our pathways. Our businesses should not have to accept repeated vandalism, theft or threatening behaviour as a normal cost of doing business. And people struggling with homelessness, mental health or addiction should have a pathway to genuine help.
The inspiration for this approach came from Vernon. Like us, and several other communities, they faced serious challenges with homelessness, public disorder and the safety of their parks
Vernon's experience showed that compassion and accountability don’t have to be competing ideas. We can offer help to those who need it while setting clear expectations for behaviour in our shared public spaces.
Between 2007 and 2011, they took a coordinated approach that brought together bylaw enforcement, outreach workers, emergency shelter, housing initiatives and social services. Rather than choosing between enforcement and compassion, the community recognized that they needed both. That coordinated approach produced promising results. Historical reports show that the number of identified homeless camps declined from 30 in June 2009 to three in March 2011, while the number of people identified in those camps fell from 31 to eight. Although those figures do not necessarily mean homelessness itself declined by the same amount, they show what can be accomplished when enforcement, outreach, shelter and housing services work together.
Today, their results are not as positive. Numbers escalated across the province, and they didn’t have the infrastructure to keep up. I believe part of that is due to the revolving door effect the provincial registry has on towns whose facilities aren’t what they appeared when people went there, prompting them to leave and seek shelter elsewhere. Vernon, like Powell River, is a long way from other communities, so leaving a community you came to for treatment isn’t as easy as it sounds. Of course, there are dozens more reasons that people have fallen into these situations and numbers have escalated, but all that aside I like the basics of what they did and would like to propose a few modifications to suit our particular area.
I would like to see a collaborative team put together much like what Vernon did that will meet often to identify what we are working with and how they can combine efforts to mitigate issues and make steps forward.
That team needs to consist of:
Outreach workers who can seek out and get to know those in the unhoused sector. What got them into that situation, what personal issues they are facing, what kind of support they need and what willingness they have to receive that support.
Housing providers to help arrange dry shelter, temporary or permanent based on the individual’s needs.
Health services to provide physical health, mental-health and substance-use assistance and work with them in their individual struggles.
Bylaw enforcement to address illegal camping, accumulated property, garbage collection and impacts on public spaces
And RCMP involvement to maintain levels of appropriate behaviour with appropriate repercussions and immediately address concerns.
These groups would need to operate as one team and meet regularly to maintain a coordinated effort. Together, they would work to find the proper balance between support and enforcement. Too much of one and not enough of the other will only make matters worse.
Second, knowing not everyone will want shelter or support, we need to have a well thought out dedicated location for those who prefer to stay outside. One that can be managed through bylaw enforcement with tents erected in the evening and taken down in the morning. With regular cleanup crews and social worker visits. These measures can reduce the footprint they currently have, reduce the number of fires we have, reduce the likelihood of our kids finding needles in our parks, and lessen the burden and costs of emergency services.
Third, because there will be some that came here from other places who don’t fit into our housing models, and who don’t want to live in our outdoor dedicated space, we should implement a “voluntary return program” to get them back to where they came from. A place they are familiar with and comfortable in. The cost of transporting several people back home will be less than one joint emergency response call and would ultimately benefit everyone.
I also believe that any and all housing provided within reasonable proximity of schools, parks, businesses, care facilities and residential neighbourhoods must be dry and the dedicated outdoor location should be a reasonable distance away so that those in the dry facility are as far from temptation as possible and our community can feel safe. These are conditions that I would advocate for with the province, BC Housing, and our housing providers.
If I were to be elected, I would engage with those operating programs in Vernon and elsewhere to get a greater understanding of what they’ve done, how they’ve done it and the results they’ve seen.
This approach would combine social work, dry housing, a managed outdoor location, bylaw enforcement, RCMP involvement and voluntary assistance for people wishing to return home. Together, these measures could create meaningful change and a more positive direction for Powell River. We can support people who need help while keeping our community safe.
