Vernon man reaches out to homeless with blankets

David Hamilton handed out five blankets Sunday morning to the homeless in Vernon.

He knows what it’s like to live on the streets, having left home at 13.

He said homeless teens, like Traci Genereaux who was found dead on a Salmon River Road farm after disappearing five months ago, need to be saved from the streets before they get hooked on drugs.

“Find those kids,” Hamilton said. “Don’t wait until they’re 25 or 26 and hooked on drugs. Get to them now. Pull them out.”

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Hamilton has seen the homeless issue in Vernon get worse in the last four years he’s been handing out blankets and food.

He believes setting up a permanent homeless camp would help bring outreach services directly to the people who need them.

“They put them in Polson Park, then they kick them out of Polson Park. Then they put them in here and kick them out of there. I think they should just find an area.”

When it comes to the increasing number of teens living on B.C. streets, Hamilton said parents should be once again empowered to take care of their own children instead of allowing kids to have the choice.

“We need to get back to parenting,” Hamilton said. “We took the parenting out of parenting and the government took that role on. And now look what we have 25 to 30 years later.”

Hamilton would like to see a group come together in Vernon to resolve the homeless issue without the boundaries of current rules and regulations he believes are making the issue worse.