Kelowna businesses left with more questions than answers after forum on street disorder

[Castanet News]

After two hours of hearing from the mayor, RCMP superintendent, a provincial cabinet minister, Crown prosecutors and Interior Health, some of more than 200...

[justintime111]

Just keep kick in that can down the road

[Derick]

The alternative is businesses with no windows, solid frontages with bars and sliding shutters. Business' will stay locked until they decide if they like the look of you, then you may enter and be watched like a hawk in the store. I wonder what that would look like, I wonder if that by itself would deter potentional tourists and customers from returning? How much are Okanagan cities relying upon tourism? What if it went away, permanently? So how much is future tourism worth? How about doing something about it before it looks like one great big downtown eastside like what happened in Vancouver. If we all want tourism dollars flowing into our communities then do something meaningfull about it, or it will just go away.

[Hornswoggle]

Finding them housing? Find me proper housing.
They still have their addictions and desires. Housing wont change them.
Help those that need and deserve it.
Its a lifestyle many choose.
If a transient has brand new boots, but mine are wore out from working, they dont need financial help.

[Jlabute]

The worst part is the answers which go unquestioned.

[FordAve]

Finding them housing? Find me proper housing.
They still have their addictions and desires. Housing wont change them.
Help those that need and deserve it.
Its a lifestyle many choose.
If a transient has brand new boots, but mine are wore out from working, they dont need financial help.

You’re quite wrong, the research and multiple studies have shown that the finding housing first for people struggling with addiction is far more effective at ending the addiction cycle. People who receive treatment then have return to the streets have a higher rate of returning to their addiction problems.

[Reasons]

What exactly has changed in the last couple weeks? I mean if all you do is look out your window to see what's happening maybe things seem effective.

[TheBanHammer]

Considering the bulk of the homeless in Kelowna are not even from here providing housing makes no sense. We should not have to provide housing for homeless coming here from other provinces, this is why we have so many new faces in the first place. Word got out that Kelowna has built homeless housing so they are flocking here from provinces in the east. They should identify where each homeless person has come from and send them back to their home province and let them figure out housing for them. Secondly they need to start holding those who have become a nuisance for a minimum of 24 hours. Once they have to go through withdrawl a couple of times they would think twice about tresspssing , lighting fires and leaving trash all over the place. Enough of this just making them move along only to become a nuisance in another neighborhood or part of town. The clean up dowtown has only pushed the problem out to other neigborhoods which is not solving anything. The rail trail is down to about 25 people because the rest don't want to follow rules. The options they do have they don't want to use for the same reason. There are tools and laws on the books already that could be used to deal with this but they are being ignored due to this soft on crime approach by the courts and the useless government. Narrow down the homeless to those who are from here and the problem already begins to be acheivable to address. There is no way we can expect to deal with all the other provinces homeless in a city with high unemployment and high rents! Even if you could get them cleaned up, they still would have to be able to find steady employment that pays enough for them to afford a place on their own. We already have plenty of folks who aren't homeless who are struggling with this exact problem. Commen sense should tell anyone that Kelowna is probably one of the worst towns to try to get straight and build a life from scratch! If the powers that be think that just throwing money at this problem is going to fix anything they need to give their head a shake! How much money has been spent already and the problem has just gotten worse by the week, clearly that isn't the answer.

[django]

These people don’t want solutions, they’ve created an entire industry that a bunch of leaches amongst us have figured out how to profit from. There are simple solutions but you weak liberal idiots don’t have the stomach for it.

[PlayerOne]

Let's see (checking notes).....yesterday's story was about 'City to hear from businesses', and I countered with 'City to Hear from Businesses....but doesn't listen'.

Nailed it.

[Hornswoggle]

When the word gets out, the Kelowna is building homes for the homeless, the homeless will keep coming.
Drove by the Gospel Mission van this morning by lions Park in Rutland, there was only about six or seven people having soup.
Bylaw been working hard clearing them out of places, they dont have numbers in there favour. Tidying up the trail across from trail appliances, which in behind is absolutely filthy disgusting some days. I drive behind there a lot. I go to the places that the city doesn’t tell you about.

Make their lives uncomfortable, make them want to leave. Take away their shopping carts, keep moving them around like you do, but you better do something. If you don’t think the rest of the world doesn’t see what’s going on in Kelowna you’re wrong. Yes Merritt is terribly disgusting too worse maybe you think the Cowboys in the natives were just run them right out of town, but not to be. Be safe.

[corsan]

Make their lives uncomfortable, make them want to leave. Take away their shopping carts, keep moving them around like you do, but you better do something.

This is absolutely correct, but is unpalatable for our city that has seen a major influx of left wing voters. When too many people are employed by the system, the homeless & addictions industry, somehow the only answer people want is more funding. More tax dollars thrown at the problem, and strangely, the problem only grows.

[ylwbizforsale]

I will give the City props for organizing a forum to have a discussion. The RCMP Superintendent was excellent, honest and direct in his comments. The RCMP can only do what the laws allow and the Federal and Provincial Governments have created most of this issue with easing laws and penalties and working together to bring in this terrible decrim experiment.

The biggest frustration last night was that the panel and organizers left little to no time to take questions despite one of the stated objectives in the invite being to "Engage directly with partners working on root‑cause challenges across our community".

By not having an open microphone and only taking a few questions via text submission while leaving dozens and dozens of questions unanswered just fuels more distrust and belief that the bureaucrats really have no interest in hearing from citizens. Just a lot of talking and very little accountability.

I hope the forum being organized for early February by our local MLAs is more of a true town hall meeting where citizens can participate.

[Dave Sutherland]

Every human being deserves to be respected and supported, including those caught in the self-destructive cycle of addiction. Addiction is a force that destroys self-determination. Those affected are under the influence of a powerful external force that forces them to turn away from everything except feeding their addiction. For many, that results in homelessness and resorting to crime. And, somehow, we as a society have bought into the ridiculous idea that the "caring" response and is to support and enable them so that they are kept barely alive, trapped in their addictions (drug, lifestyle etc.), until they are completely destroyed by the "epidemic" of overdose or some other result of living in a toxic environment. Meanwhile, society foots the bill for the huge related costs of clearly futile rescue strategies that consume scarce; healthcare, policing, firefighting, social services, not-for-profit, crime, and other resources. Most of us know this to be very definition of futility. It certainly has nothing to do with caring for the human beings that are so affected. We (the people) need to just say "no" to the perpetuation of this lunacy.

Most politicians probably agree with all of this. But they will not act, other than by way of lip service, until "public opinion" gives them the power to do so. The "enabling" lobby, including a whole industry that depends on perpetuating the status quo, speaks loudly and has momentum, even it is a numerical minority. So, if you really care about those folks who are homeless because of; addictions, mental illness, and/or life-style choice, speak out. Speak out for a massive resource shift from enabling to saving those affected who can be saved. Speak out loudly for refusing to enable people who refuse real efforts aimed at helping them. Speak out strongly for the right and responsibility of freedom of choice. If people refuse help in breaking addiction and choose to live in the toxic environment of homelessness, that is their right. It is society's right and responsibility to say "okay, but don't expect society to support you in that choice. If you break the law, you will be subject to the consequences. Your freedom will not include how and where you are allowed to camp and/or loiter. Adequate funding will be there to help you get off the streets and/or break your addictions. But those support programs will be funded on proven long-term results so, if you are not committed to self-help, that support will not be perpetuated endlessly.

If you really care .... really care, speak out. Things have to change.

[Ranthro]

It's time for a homeless encampment on the front lawn of city hall, and all the city staff can deal with getting their vehicles broken in to on a daily basis. The only way anything gets done is when the situation starts to impact the ivory tower dwellers sitting on their fat lazy a$$es. Enough is enough