For the second time this month, city council in Penticton has unanimously refused a request from BC Housing.
Earlier this month, council said no to BC Housing’s request to issue a year-long extension to a controversial winter shelter in downtown Penticton, a 42-bed site on Winnipeg Street.
In turn, that sparked a sharp response from BC Housing, along with a war of words, asking council if it would reconsider its decision — to which council on Tuesday said no, it would not.
The reasons to refuse varied, but the no reasons boiled down to community concerns, the city punching above its weight-class in offering homeless support and the province trying to force its position on Penticton.
“As a city council, we have been speaking for the community at large,” said councillor Julius Bloomfield. “It’s evident to me we have the support of the majority of the community in the position that we’ve taken.
“And that position really comes out of a level of frustration and the bitter experiences of past and present solutions that have not and are not working as planned and promised.”
Bloomfield continued, saying, “Nobody is trying to ignore the plight of the homeless, nobody’s telling us to ignore them.
“Everybody who has written to us, or given us messages of support for our position, have also wanted us to find a solution to this issue.”
Bloomfield suggests that the city, BC Housing and Interior Health get back to the talks table, but that elected politicians shouldn’t be involved. Rather, he says it should be staff who are better qualified to find solutions.
Councillor Frank Regehr said solutions are wanted. However, in referencing a BC Housing report, he noted that Penticton’s level of supportive and shelter housing, based on its population, was the highest in the province.
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He also noted that Penticton had twice the level of support that Kelowna had, despite Kelowna having four times the population.
“We have done more than our share in Penticton,” said Regehr. “The real problem in the city is inadequate community-based mental health and drug-recovery programs for individuals living in supportive housing and shelter housing.”
“It’s saying we need to find a way to make this effective, and effective for a whole community,” said councillor Campbell Watt.
“An extension of this use is not in our community’s best interest,” added councillor Katie Robinson.
According to the city, the Winnipeg Street shelter sprung into existence because COVID-19 regulations forced extra spacing at the city’s cold-weather shelters.
The city reluctantly gave the green light to the Winnipeg Street shelter, but only gave it a temporary-use permit that was to expire on April 1.
With the deadline nearing, BC Housing asked council if it would extend the temporary-use permit, which was denied.
Now, with some people at the shelter being vaccinated, the city is wondering if they’ll be able to return to other shelters throughout the city.
Prior to the vote, Penticton mayor John Vassilaki said he was proud of his fellow council members.
“I have never been as proud of this city council as I am at the present time in the magnificent way that they expressed not only to the media,” he said, “but to the public and to the province how our community feels about the situation.”
Last week, in an interview with Global News, housing minister David Eby said the province has “the ability to continue to operating the shelter and ignore local bylaws and land-use roles in doing so.”
Global News has reached out to BC Housing for comment.
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