One Foot Off Center: coping with Kelowna's homeless crisis

Castanet is proud to present One Foot Off Center, a podcast tackling the big issues facing the Okanagan.

Rick Maddison, Ron Mattiussi, Scott Lanigan and Jeff Cox will meet every month to discuss how those issues impact everyday Canadians.

Maddison is a well-known entrepreneur in Kelowna and owner of Tempest Media. Mattiussi is the former chief administrator of the City of Kelowna and has worked in local government across the province.

Lanigan is the lead pastor of Trinity Church, one of Kelowna’s largest churches, who has served with various community groups like Journey Home.

Cox is the founder and CEO of Kelowna-based Simply Benefits.

---

This month, the panel discussed the controversial cleanup of Kelowna's tent city.

Lanigan emphasized the need for viable alternatives for the individuals that will be forced out of the camp each morning.

"Where are these individuals going to go? It's fine to say, hey, we don't like tent city or any city, no matter what jurisdiction you're in, but here in Kelowna, there has to be a viable alternative," he said.

"Unfortunately, in Kelowna, we don't have a viable alternative for these individuals."

"Even yesterday, we were walking downtown as a family, and we saw an increase in, the homeless community and I'm like, well, this is directly correlated to what happened just a few days ago," Lanigan continued.

Lanigan sat on the board of directors for the now-dissolved Journey Home initiative and he is sympathetic to Kelowna's unhoused population.

Jeff Cox highlighted the complexities of homelessness, including mental health issues and drug abuse, and called for a shift from wet houses, which allow drug use, to detox facilities.

Ron Mattiussi, former city manager, says he watched as the homeless population in Kelowna just kept rising while he was at city hall.

"In my time as city manager, over a five-year period, statistics were, bylaw enforcement broke up, one year, 25 camps. Next year, 75 by the time I stopped counting, it was up to 300, 400," Mattiussi said.

He said the city tried to take a firmer stance on homelessness and prevent camping on sidewalks.

"Other governments have the money to deal with it. We take property taxes. We just didn't think that we should be using that money to deal with a problem that comes from everywhere."

Mattiussi says during his time as city manager he felt he was constantly dealing with the repercussions of failed policy.

"I think governments are getting to the point where we're going to have to say having people sleep on the streets in winter is not what a just society, what a fair society does. But there's an element on our streets that are not going to be housed in conventional housing or conventional type homes."

The rest of the conversation underscored the need for comprehensive, data-informed solutions to address the root causes of homelessness and the community's response to it.

One Foot Off Center will be published monthly by Castanet, on YouTube, and in an audio-only version on Spotify.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.