CITY MUST PUT MONEY BEHIND FOUR PILLARS STRATEGY

Active Voice

It wasn't even four years ago that the expressed policy of the City of
Kelowna was that it had no mandate to deal with homelessness or drug addiction.

That is a provincial or federal responsibility was the stock answer to any
question of why the city didn't do something more for the people living
under bridges and behind dumpsters.

Their response, at the time, was to come down hard using police and bylaw
officers on any homeless person who dared to make themselves too visible to
the taxpaying public.

My first taste of that was an early morning call I got from a guy who was
living in Camp Freedom, an impromptu collection of tents a group of
homeless people had set up on city land in the North End.

"It's happening," was all the guy had to say.

I rushed down there with my camera in time to snap photos of burly police
officers carting away the tents and any of the Camp Freedom denizens who
said the wrong thing. Camp Freedom only lasted about five days but I think
it was the first public indication anyone in the city had about the growing
problem of homelessness, which really isn't a problem at all but a symptom
of drug addiction and mental illness.

What a difference four years makes.

Since then, the problems that were always there have increased to the point
that we can no longer avoid them.

It's now possible during a stroll through downtown to have to step over
someone sleeping in a doorway, and see a discarded syringe a few steps
later while winding your way through street people conducting open drug deals.

Along with the rise of the problem, the city has seen some attempts at
solutions, including the rise (and fall) of the Kelowna Homelessness
Steering Committee, the beginning of the Out of the Cold emergency shelter
and the beginnings of the Central Okanagan Four Pillars Coalition. It's the
last one that has really highlighted the change in the city's attitude.

Social issues such as homelessness and drug addiction may be the
responsibility of the province or the feds but the problem is sleeping in
our doorways and shooting up in our public washrooms.

The Four Pillars Coalition is the closest the city has come to actually
coordinating a sensible response to the problem.

But so far, it's just talk and we still await the final report from the
coalition.

And it won't be worth the paper it's written on if the city doesn't get
behind it with more than just kind words.

Yes, the province and federal government still have responsibility for
social issues but the city is going to have to grease the wheels with cash
and any political arm-twisting it can muster.

Financial support for the Four Pillars Coalition is noticeably absent from
next year's interim city budget.

To be fair, the coalition has yet to submit its final report. But when the
interim budget is complete in May, the city will have a chance to finally
put its money where its mouth is. Don't blow it.