As remediation work continued at Kelowna, B.C.’s, homeless encampment along the Okanagan Rail Trail for the second day, the city announced more sweeping changes for the tent city and the roughly 90 people sheltering there.
“It’s at a point where we believe it’s time for a change to try and do better with what we have,” said Kevin Mead, bylaw services manager for the City of Kelowna.
The city-designated outdoor sheltering site, north of the downtown core, will soon take up a smaller footprint.
Tent sizes will be reduced from the current 12 by 12 feet to eight by eight feet and there will only be 60 tents on site, which will be assigned to individuals.
According to the city, the site will operate more like an indoor shelter with more rules and within a controlled environment.
The other major change the city has announced is the site will no longer be open 24 hours a day and instead operate only between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m.
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“This is a temporary shelter even the location of that is indeed temporary,” Mead said. “There is not an intent to increase any additional infrastructure nor make that a spot for permanent residency.”
The new measures are in addition to the changes announced a day earlier, including fencing around the site, 24-7 security and a stamp system to prevent anyone but tent city residents to enter the premises.
“Heartache, sadness,” resident David Lauer said as he described his thoughts on the major changes.
Lauer, who has called tent city home for the past year, said the uncertainty is causing a lot angst as he wonders where he may end up.
“It’s very concerning, actually. I don’t want to be on the street. Some of us are not drug addicts,” Lauer told Global News. “There’s a lot of good people that have had bad luck.”
Advocates for the unhoused population are expressing concern the new measures will only exacerbate the homelessness crisis in the city as more people desperately seek shelter on downtown streets and in back alleys.
‘They have to go somewhere, people don’t just disappear,” said Tony Baxter, a former outreach worker.
Baxter said he believes the displacement of vulnerable people amid a lack of shelter space will lead to more hospitalizations and overdoses and cost taxpayers more money in the end.
“It’s a step backwards,” Baxter said. “This money could instead go towards social housing and other wraparound services to treat people…and it would be a humane approach and stabilize people, but instead they are criminalizing homelessness even more.”
The city expects to complete the remediation work in the coming days along with the transition to the new operational measures.
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