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Vernon city council has voted in favour of allowing homeless people to continue to sleep in public areas, including Polson Park, when there are no beds at local shelters – and they don't have to pack up in the morning.
Only councilllor Scott Anderson opposed the move, arguing for time limits that would see people pack up their tents by 8 a.m. each morning.
“We have other people we are responsible for,” Anderson told council. “We owe it to the homeless to provide shelter, but we also owe it to young families who want to take their kids to the park. They don't do that anymore...because there are tents here and there is trash there.”
“We have to balance the needs of the homeless with the needs of the other population,” Anderson said.
Recent court judgements forced changes to rules in Victoria and Abbotsford after attempts to ban people from sleeping in the parks, although the judge in the Abbotsford case set out a daily time limit.
“The shelter space has been full for close to two years,” conceded Clint Kanester, the city's bylaw manager. “As long as there is no shelter space, it would be considered a violation of human rights and freedoms (to deny homeless access to public areas).”
“I think these people are going to get more and more frustrated and more and more angry which is what we're trying to avoid,” Coun. Catherine Lord told Anderson. “Where would you have homeless people go?”
“Right now the COOL team is working closely with the population staying in the parks,” said Coun. Juliette Cunningham, adding the homeless were asked to clean up camps, keep them small and minimize the impact on the wider community. “There are people with very few options now. If we put time parameters on it, guess where they are going to go to?...This is why we're fighting for supportive housing.”
Mayor Akbal Mund also expressed his fear the homeless would pack up their tents each morning and plant themselves in the centre of town creating “more problems in the downtown core.”
Kanester told council he would return with further amendments to the bylaw, including one which would restrict the number of people living in a camp.
Kanester said there were nine encampments in Polson Park presently, including four people at one site.
