SINGH – How to end homelessness in Kamloops 

By ARJUN SINGH
The Kamloops Chronicle

OK, I HATE TO BEGIN this column with a disclaimer. But you need to know this before you read further.

Here it is: No community will ever end homelessness forever.

Still, the title of this column is still very appropriate. It is easy to get stuck in the problem here – homelessness often seems to breed helplessness. But there are proven strategies to achieve what experts call “functional zero” homelessness – homelessness that is a brief, rare, and one time occurrence.

I feel fortunate to have worked on several initiatives over the past 20 years to help Kamloops achieve “functional zero”. This work has definitely had its ups and downs. In 2017, for example,I served on a city council that was able to help facilitate the relatively quick construction of 100s of social housing units through modular construction – a big win. One of these buildings, on West Victoria St, quickly became a lightning rod for concerns about crime and social disorder- a big challenge.

Economic times got harder, the toxic drug crisis became more severe, and community concerns ramped up in a big way. There seems to be more people living rough on the streets than ever.

An incredibly powerful and useful experience for me in seeking solutions has been meeting people who are currently experiencing homelessness or have been experienced homelessness in the past. In the past two years, I’ve gotten a lot of advice and insight from my friend Murray Love. I got his permission to use his name and share some of his thoughts here.

Murray was living in a tent when we first met and he has been a vocal advocate for solutions to homelessness. He thankfully now has housing and continues to advocate.

I called Murray for his advice on this column. He shared that there isn’t one solution and services need to be tailored to different groups, or even different individuals, and he shared that we need more day time centres for people currently unhoused.

Murray’s wisdom and experience matches much of the reporting on successful strategies to achieve functional zero homelessness. First, we need more skilled outreach and support workers who can build trust with people experiencing homelessness. Second, we need to have a diverse range of robust services to support people – counselling, housing, mental health, substance use. When someone is ready to get help, we can’t offer only a wait list. Third, we need to remain committed to supporting people over what is often a long journey, and support people in being committed to living their best lives.

Hugely important, we need to really ramp up efforts to mitigate potential negative impacts of any service for people at risk of or experiencing homelessness on neighboring homes and businesses. This would increase community support for such services drastically in my view.

The negative impacts cause a lot of concern, anger and fear in the community. This is completely understandable. We can, however, be part of the solutions. Just because I pay my taxes, it doesn’t give me a pass from being part of the solution. We need to own this difficult work together.

Arjun Singh is a former Kamloops City councillor and is currently the executive director of the Kamloops Local News Society, which publishes the Kamloops Chronicle. This column also appears in the May edition of the Chronicle. He can be contacted at info@kamloopschronicle.com.