There were long line-ups at Kelowna’s Gospel Mission Thanksgiving Monday where volunteers dished out a record number of meals, offering a snapshot of the escalating problem of poverty and homelessness in the city.
More and more seniors are having to turn to charities to make ends meet. And even the homeless are shocked by just how serious the problem has become.
Randy Benson of the Gospel Mission can remember when they prepared a few hundred Thanksgiving meals. Today that number is approaching one thousand.
“I’ve been here for 17 years, and when I started, if we served 250-300 that was a big crowd,” he said.
Benson has also seen a shift in demographics of the homeless.
“Seniors are losing their housing because they just can’t keep up. So we’re seeing more of that kind of situation where you get seniors who can’t afford the housing so they end up here.”
Sylvain Thibeault has been on and off the streets of Kelowna for the past decade. He can recall when the number of homeless was relatively small.
“I remember when I first got here about 10 years ago, there was a drop-in centre and there was about no more than 50 or 60 of us that were regularly hanging out there,” said Thibeault.
According to the Gospel Mission, there were more than 630 homeless people in Kelowna in 2016.
In 2011 there were 108.