Homelessness is an issue we all wish we could solve overnight. I wish that too. But it is a complex one.
People do not end up living on the street for a single reason, and they do not leave it in one step. Each person needs many supports: a safe place to sleep, health care, help with addiction or mental illness, and someone who keeps showing up. And progress is not a straight line. People move forward, slip back, and try again.
That is why what works is housing first, with significant wraparound services. A door that locks, a meal, and people on site who are still there on the hard days.
What we've done
- Supportive housing. With BC Housing and Turning Points Collaborative Society, Vernon opened My Place and then The Crossings @ 35th: 104 homes with staff on site around the clock, daily meals, skills training, work placements, and health, mental-health and addictions services in the building. As I said when The Crossings opened, it gives people significant dignity and helps them begin to rejoin the community.
- Land and fees. Housing is a provincial mandate, but BC Housing requires a non-profit to have land before it will fund a project. So the City pays the development cost charges and sometimes even buys the land, and that secures the provincial funding.
- 600 non-market homes since 2018, built and run by not-for-profit housing providers in partnership with the City. For someone leaving the street or a shelter, that is the next step.
- Mental health. Mental health care is the Province's responsibility, but there are still ways we can help. The City gave a cash grant to the Canadian Mental Health Association for the new Youth Mental Health Foundry in downtown Vernon.
What comes next
- The new shelter. It is already approved, and the City must make sure the Province builds it. Stable, safe shelter, protected from extremes of heat and cold, matters to the people who need it and to the well-being of the whole community.
- A regional psychiatric ward at Vernon Jubilee Hospital. It was announced and then stalled by the Province on cost. I want our Regional Hospital Board representatives to press the Province to sharpen the project's focus so it can move quickly once funding is available.
- More homes with supports. Our non-profits have more projects ready to go when funding becomes available. The City needs to keep funding the Social Planning Council, keep backing the Affordable Housing Committee, and keep helping with land.
Addiction and mental illness are health conditions. Treating them is the Province's job. Making sure there is a safe place in Vernon for that help to reach people is ours.
"Building a Community for Everyone" has to include the people who have the furthest to come.
Watch
Keep reading
- Grow Up Here
- Build a Life Here
- Grow Older Here
- We Don't Have to Choose
- Grow What We've Got
- Right Outside Your Door
- We Made a Plan
- Eight Years of Results
Voting day is Saturday, October 17. When and where to vote