3: Activate Safety proposals

The number three story on Castanet Vernon's 2018 Top 10 list revolves around the community's homeless population and the City of Vernon's attempt to address growing concerns from the business community. 

The number of people sleeping rough in Vernon has steadily risen in recent years from an estimated 144 in 2016 to an estimated 153 in 2017 to the most recent estimation of 161 in 2018.  

The number has also steadily risen across the province — at least 7,655 people are experiencing homelessness across a broad demographic of individuals, families, youth and seniors.

There are many factors that lead a person to live a life on the streets, and no two stories are the same, but many experts point to both a worsening opioid crisis and the attainable and affordable housing crisis as major factors.   

Like many communities in British Columbia, Vernon has struggled to find solutions to an increasing homeless population. 

The City of Vernon works closely with social service agencies, and the provincial government has poured money into the city and more housing options which are set to come online in 2019.

In late 2017, the City of Vernon commissioned a task force to look at the effects the homeless community has on the business community and come up with recommendations based on those concerns. 

"If you are on social media, you know that there is an outcry to do something about, in particular, the influx of transients in the summertime," Vernon councillor, Scott Anderson told Castanet. "I hope something good comes of it and council follows a number of the recommendations that may flow from this task force."

The eight-person Activate Safety Task Force was chaired by Darrin Taylor of Axis Intervention and made up of members from the business community, RCMP, Vernon Bylaw and city councillors, Scott Anderson and Brian Quiring.

In April of 2018, the task force held its first meeting with the public. 

More than 100 concerned citizens packed into the Schubert Centre to share their concerns. The event turned into an 'us and them' rally with many saying it was time to "take back our city."

Speaker after speaker shared stories of witnessing open drug use, finding drug paraphernalia, garbage and feces, experiencing crime and intimidation, dousing lit fires and encountering sex in public spaces —their words painted a picture of a city held hostage by its street-entrenched population.

"They have been pushing us for years. Let's push them back a little bit and gain back our town," said one man.

"We pay taxes, they do not," said another man. "How do non-paying taxpayers have more rights than taxpayers?"

Another speaker said, "There is a segment of our population that makes it difficult for us to do our jobs."

"Every morning I am cleaning up after them, and it is B.S.," said another. 

For several months as the task force held its weekly member meetings, tensions in the community increased.  

There was a sense the community was divided over its homeless population — especially on social media.

That frustration finally boiled over into real life when a downtown business owner, fed up with finding garbage on his property, collected all the items left behind by the homeless community and dumped it on the steps of City Hall. 

On July 9, more than three months after its initial meeting with the public, Darrin Taylor presented the task force's 40 recommendations to council. 

Many of the task force's recommendations have been, or will be, implemented, including the construction of public washrooms, an increase in RCMP and bylaw patrols, and an anti-graffiti team. However, much to the disapproval of some of the task force's members, at the time of adoption, many of the recommendations were adjusted — including a city-wide shopping cart ban. 

The original recommendation, which was proposed to the task force by councillor Quiring, was to was to have shopping carts banned only in the downtown core. That was expanded by then-mayor Akbal Mund to encompass the whole City of Vernon. 

With the exception of then-councillor, Juliette Cunningham, the shopping cart ban was supported by council, and city staff was directed to draft the necessary bylaws. 

Of all the Activate Safety Task Force recommendations, none was condemned as strongly as the shopping cart ban. 

Many felt the ban was cruel and unfairly targeted members of Vernon's marginalized homeless population. 

In the wake of the decision, several people took up the challenge to provide the homeless community with wagons, if they weren't allowed to use shopping carts.

Even the BC Civil Liberties Association got involved, urging the city not to implement a proposed bylaw to regulate shopping carts

"We believe that the proposed bylaw is blatantly discriminatory and would not survive a constitutional challenge. The ban will impair the rights of a specific class of people in Vernon - the homeless population – and undermine their rights to liberty and security of the person as enshrined in Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

The city eventually rejected the proposed ban, however, the damage was done to the legacy of the Activate Safety Task Force.

For all the recommendations that were supported by city staff, the Activate Safety Task Force will be forever linked to the proposed ban on shopping carts.