EDITORIAL – Homeless count raises questions but provides no answers
(Image: pixabay.com/ PublicDomainPictures)
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
THE LATEST HOMELESSNESS COUNT raises many questions about the “unhoused” in Kamloops but provides no answers.
Called the “Point in Time” survey, it reveals that when it was taken on April 12 and 13 this year, 312 people were identified as homeless, a 51 per cent increase from 2021. The greatest number were in the 35-44 age group, 60 per cent were male, 37 per cent female and thee per cent 2SLGBTQPIA+.
The report also states that 52 per cent identified as indigenous, 43 per cent have residential school experience, 48 per cent of indigenous respondents were in the foster care system, and 30 per cent of indigenous respondents experienced discrimination as a barrier to housing.
Here’s a very important number: according to the count, 56 per cent of respondents have always lived in Kamloops or have lived here for more than five years. It’s important to note that “chronic homelessness” is defined in the report as having been homeless for at least six months in the past year or have been homeless for 18 months in the past three years.
That suggests homelessness is a somewhat transitory thing, which presents challenges in figuring out root causes and solutions.
But here’s a fact revealed by the count that really does need some examination: 44 per cent translates to roughly 137 homeless individuals who are here from somewhere else.
So the big question is, why are they here? Why did 137 people without homes decide to come to Kamloops? The survey doesn’t answer the question.
Maybe more importantly, what could be done to keep them in their home communities? Were they attracted by the services offered in Kamloops, for example? It goes to the issue raised by Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson recently when he tried to get support for a new program to offer them a ride back to home.
And then there’s the disturbing stat showing half the homeless in Kamloops are indigenous. That suggests Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc and various indigenous groups need to step up in a big way to help tackle this problem. The report identifies TteS and Kamloops Aboriginal Friendship Society as partners in the count but obviously there’s a lot more work to do.
The report departs from objectivity at this point and asserts that the legacy of colonization, especially the residential school system, is an important cause. Is that an assumption, or a generalization based on the current sensitive climate surrounding indigenous issues? What are other possible causes? (The report defines residential school experience as having attended a residential school, or having parents or grandparents who attended.)
How does it interact or overlap with other factors such as youth homelessness, gender, sexual orientation and the general housing crisis? Again, the report doesn’t attempt to answer.
The report acknowledges that homelessness in Kamloops results from a combination of “structural factors, systems failures and individual circumstances.”
There was surprisingly little reaction to the report when it was put in front of City council today (Oct. 31, 2023). So the question remains, what do we do about it?
Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Time to read 21 Things Mel! To infer that it’s the Indigenous BANDS that need to step up for their people perpetuates the idea that the GOVERNMENT had nothing to do with the high alcoholism and mental health issues Indigenous communities face today. Government needs to step up.
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My granddaughter is a social worker who hasn’t drank the Kool Aid, as it were.
She has intimated on many occasions that the social ills that arise from homelessness cannot be solved by the current approaches. Why?
The service providers are incentivized by the pay structure to not solve anything, but rather treat the symptoms continuously. If the problem is solved, then there is no need for the service provider. More clients? More money and jobs.
As you read in the article, half of respondents are not from here. It’s because they come here (and are shipped here) to make use of the generous services on offer. The more services, the more clients. The more clients, the more services. The less consequence, the more abuse. What health and some political leaders have done is turn the social contract upside down. Now you will pay exorbitant sums, and those sums will go toward maintaining the lifestyles of street people and they lurch from place to place, with drug abuse as the singular drive and goal.
The more we allow drug use, the more we support it, the less stigma, the stronger the fall toward normalizing this as the status quo.
What will work is putting and keeping people in jail who commit crime and disorder. And housing addicts and those with mental health problems (if you abuse street drugs you cannot be deemed mentally fit) in sanitariums until if/when they can exist in a manner than isn’t a constant drain on society.
This city and many others have seen a marked decline in civility and proper functioning. If we don’t make a change, take off the kid gloves and bring out the sticks, much more damage will be done to these people than if we got back to some sensible logical policy.
Simply, the numbers don’t lie. If any of these approaches worked, numbers would be dropping. Instead, expenses, crime and death is on the rise. How you can stand here and not think people are doing severe damage to their brains and bodies by facilitating the use of fentanyl is not only irresponsible, but should be seen as criminal. It certainly isn’t compassion as the dogmatic safe supply cultists would have you believe.
We’re paying for it one way or another, so let’s pay for it but take our communities back.
In Kamloops, I’m Denny Law
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Some helpful observations.
This sounds much like a form of human trafficking. The money trough dries up if addictions are treated and the vulnerable are given back their human dignity.
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Dare we examine the disproportional numbers of indigenous people who experience such things as homelessness, alcoholism, and imprisonment since the residential school system was part of Canadian society?
Couple that with examining how Canadian society has dealt with mental health issues that are so prevalent with a lot of folks who are “unhoused”?
The response seems to be to supply enough first responders, spend our taxpayers broke on keeping the cruel treatment of our most vulnerable as an accepted lifestyle while ignoring the obvious. Many of the human beings who are huddled under old sleeping bags and push shopping carts from Point A to Point B to Point C day after day in a vicious cycle of meaninglessness will not be suddenly able to cope with life any better tomorrow than they have today.
Meanwhile, the mentality exists and has been expressed that supplying a safe place for (at least some of) these folks to live with a degree of dignity is equal to putting them into a concentration camp. God help us.
The bottom line is that our pets have a far better lifestyle than many of our vulnerable fellow human beings.
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It seems that the provincial and federal governments are making policies and spending big money in trying to improve the stats but it will be a while before we see tangible progress. Something can be done at a personal level too and I am happy to contribute.
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