Homeless get a break

Photo: Darren Handschuh

File photo of tent at Polson Park.

The handful of homeless people still sleeping in Polson Park are getting a break on the time they can set up their tents as the days grow shorter, although not before some heated debate at city council.

Recently, Vernon council passed a bylaw that allows camping in most city parks between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. when there are no other beds available in the community.

But, at a meeting on Monday, councillors passed a resolution stating the bylaw was not to be enforced after 7 p.m.

“It's getting dark much earlier so these people are wandering around instead of getting settled,” Coun. Juliette Cunningham told council.

Cunningham said the matter was of concern to social service groups, including the COOL team, that administer to the homeless.

Councillors Scott Anderson and Dalvir Nahal opposed the resolution.

Anderson said a change would “neuter” the bylaw.

“Our object is to stop people from camping in the park. This is essentially going to gut our intention if we start chipping away at the slab....(The bylaw) has been in force now for a month. Why don't we give it a chance?”

Bylaw official Darren Lees confirmed there are far fewer people sleeping rough in the park, estimating about six people were still camping, far from the 30 or so who were there at the beginning of the summer.

Nahal pointed to the campsites that have sprung up on 25th Avenue by Linear Park.

“All we have done is disperse the problem,” agreed Cunningham. “We have not solved the problem. There are probably as many (homeless) out there as there probably were.”

Later, Cunningham accused the city of hoping the homeless would “disappear and become some other community's problem.”

But Anderson said many of the transients were from elsewhere and the councillors were responsible to the citizens of Vernon.

Costs for monitoring the park have shot up in the past year, council has authorized $70,000, $30,000 and $13,000 at separate times to increase a bylaw presence in the park. As well, $60,000 was put in the 2017 budget for the clean up of homeless camps.

In further moves to make the park safer and used more often, council has now approved reserve and unexpended funds of $28,150 to be spent on a two-year pilot program permitting dogs on-leash within Polson Park and $32,000 for vegetation removal and improvements to the trail and boardwalk area.