Penticton Wants A Homeless Encampment

[rustled]

All the city council wants is a permanent building accompanied by mental health servies.

Eby wanted to extend the temporary structure and not provide any additional services.

City council voted to force a new location, close current one that was only supposed to be open temporarily for a year, and then get a permanent location set up.

I'd further suggest the people who live in Penticton also want the Province to work with the city to find more appropriate locations (more than one) with appropriate services for the very different needs of people who are living rough.

We've seen what happened in Seattle when the "powers that be" decided people with serious addiction and mental health issues should ALL be warehoused in a downtown core. Regardless of anyone's good intentions, it makes no sense for us to continue attempting to replicate that disaster here in Penticton, when so clearly the result is negative outcomes for all.

Eby knows full well that what he is forcing on Penticton's downtown is the wrong approach. He would never attempt to suggest the citizens of Point Grey must go along with warehousing the homeless in the middle of their neighbourhood and threaten them with a tent camp in their park.

If we don't stand with Council on this, we invite what happened in Seattle.

What Eby's government is doing is NOT an effective solution - not for the homeless, not for anyone. Successfully pitting us against our Council will allow the provincial government to keep doing what's easiest for them, instead of doing what's right.

[rustled]

From the letter from BC Housing:

BC Housing's Use of the Property
BC Housing's interest in the Property is held pursuant to a facility licence agreement dated for reference May 1, 2020 between the registered owner of the Property, Pentictonia Holdings Ltd., as licensor (the "Licensor"), and Provincial Rental Housing Corporation ("PRHC"), as licensee, as extended by a facility license amendment dated July 24, 2020, and a facility license amendment dated February 8, 2021 (together, the "License"). PRHC is a British Columbia corporation wholly-owned by the Provincial Crown and controlled by BC Housing. The Licence is valid and binding, and gives PRHC the full right and entitlement to exclusively use the Property until March 31, 2022.

Apparently, Pentictonia Holdings agreed to continue the lease. They seem to have registered as a corporation on November 1 of 2018 ( https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/docu ... 108fin1318 ) and according to BC Assessment, they purchased the property later that month.

The primary value is the land itself:

Sales history (last 3 full calendar years) Nov 29, 2018, $1,425,000
352 WINNIPEG ST PENTICTON
Area-Jurisdiction-Roll: 17-222-04846.000
Total Value $1,141,000
Land $999,000
Buildings $142,000

It would be interesting to understand why Pentictonia Holdings has agreed to extend the lease to PRHC, when clearly the current use is devaluing their investment from both a business sense - surely property values around that location are dropping as they did when this experiment in centrally warehousing drug addicted and mentally ill homeless people was attempted in Seattle - and in terms of the goodwill of the community.

Surely by now people are beginning to understand this is NOT compassionate. Genuinely compassionate assistance requires far more effort and to date, our provincial and federal governments continue to prove utterly incapable of meeting the challenge.

[one wheel]

This BC Housing drama show is now exposing the extreme level of bullying that David Eby is pushing onto the residents of Penticton & trying to blame the Mayor & Council is very hollow.

I've lost faith in BC Housing.

[rustled]

It's entirely possible BC Housing has the same problem as Council: they know what the Province is doing actually causes MORE long-term problems for EVERYONE (and is nothing but window dressing), but they are over-ridden by Eby.

[Sparki55]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton ... ion#327532

Well, the province flexed its muscle. I'd resign if I was that council and mayor. Stupid politics.

Council resign? Uh...no.....if ANYone resigns, it should be David Eby! Its the Province that has let everyone down by not providing proper support (not just housing off the streets but counselling and getting these people off drugs period and back into the workplace to earn a living). Any mental health issues should be addressed in proper facilities that the previous Governments closed down years ago. Time to fix the problem; not just bandaid it. The amount of O.D. calls to that location is just horrific!

!00% agree, I'm not cut out for politics. This would sour me so much I'd just give up and let that idiot Eby be the reason penticton has no governance.

Yes very childish and would only hurt the citizens more but hence why I'm not cut out for politics!

[DarbyD]

Soon the usual transient homless population will be flocking back to the Okanagan for the warm weather, beaches, and easy lifestyle.

Penticton city council is right, there needs to be mental health and addiction support for those homeless who are here year round and who have complex issues. Whose substance use and mental health are out of control and degrades their own safety and the public's safety. Usually these are not services provided by shelters.

[hozzle]

The NDP have a racket going on... they rely on the votes of the poor/homeless/those wanting handouts to stay in power... the more they keep them alive and somewhat healthy to vote - their base grows. Meanwhile the rest of us continue to pay taxes to help the NDP fund their scam on the working people of BC.

[rustled]

BC's Housing Minister and Attorney General David Eby, who had previously delivered an ultimatum to city council asking them to reconsider allowing the shelter to continue through the rest of 2021, told media Wednesday he is "disappointed" with council's decision to roundly and unanimously dismiss that request.

"They did so despite knowing that we have no plan B, there is no other site, and the 40-plus people living at that shelter would be made homeless by that decision. After March 31, the province will operate the shelter under the provincial paramountcy authority," Eby said.

“The vote sends a very unambiguous message from council to the province that they’re not interested in working with us on the challenging problem of homelessness in Penticton."
https://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton ... cy-shelter

HOGWASH, Eby.

This morning, one of our council members was on CBC radio explaining that the City had located in excess of 42 beds available elsewhere in the community and relayed the information about these beds to the Province.

So when Eby tells us council is not interested in working with the Province, that's clearly malarkey.

Eby admits his government has no Plan B. What's more, his government has consistently failed to deliver on Plan A. And after the consistent failures of the Provincial government, Eby expects the people of Penticton to allow him to "blame" our Council.

Eby continues to threaten us with a homeless encampment in our downtown park, as though that is the only alternative the people of Penticton can expect, as though that is the only alternative for the homeless: the inappropriate shelter on Winnipeg OR tents in a downtown park.

Obviously, if the City was able to locate shelter for more than the 40 people currently using the shelter, this is ALL about the Province expecting to be allowed to warehouse the homeless wherever THEY choose to warehouse them.