Vernon council says homeless encampments can't be cleaned up overnight

Photo: Chelsey Mutter

Homeless camps can’t be cleaned up overnight, the City of Vernon says.

Coun. Kari Gares brought the issue up Monday, hoping to clarify that several high visibility encampments are not on city property.

Camps north of the city have garnered attention for the garbage problem they’re causing.

“Again, this is just for the public's ability to understand why it doesn't happen necessarily overnight, that it is a multi-jurisdictional issue that we're having to contend with,” said Gares.

City administration says the camps are on CN Rail land and the city been working with CN through fire services. It says CN is “looking at addressing that right now, to go in and remove those encampments and clean that area up.”

CN previously told Castanet the area at the north end of town is not its jurisdiction, based on a map. The Ministry of Transportation originally took responsibility for the land.

Coun. Teresa Durning said she had spoken to the ministry and that "they were well aware of it and working on it."

While the area has long been home to homeless camps, it recently gained attention due to concerns over its affect of wildlife at nearby Swan Lake.

Wildlife expert Pete Wise said animals will end up dying because of the garbage.

“They end up going after the garbage, and when they go after that garbage, something has to be done about the bear. They need to clean it up.”

Coun. Kelly Fehr added that CN has complicated the matter by fining people who have tried to clean up the area.

“I think it's important that Councillor Gares brought that up, because it is an ongoing issue,” said Fehr.

“I do know that, probably about 10 employees of Turning Points Collaborative Society volunteered their time and went down and cleaned up around the north end.”