Penticton mayor attributes high police workload to homelessness in the Okanagan city

The mayor of Penticton, B.C., is asking other southern Okanagan communities to share the responsibility for accommodating people living with homelessnesswhich hesays is the main reason behind the high call volume tolocal police.

At a Feb. 2 citycouncil meeting, Penticton RCMP Supt. Brian Hunter said his force'sworkload was170 criminalcases per officer in2019compared to the provincial average of 71. It's the highest inB.C.and is "unsustainable," he added.

The case load representsthe number of Criminal Code offencesin the city (excluding drug and traffic offences) divided by the number of police officers.

"Our members are getting burnedout with the caseload," Hunter said. "They're stressed and they're also very frustrated police officers."

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The latest quarterly report from the RCMP showsthe total reported crimes in Penticton in 2020 weredown nine per cent from 2019, but that was a particularly busy year for local police. A2019 B.C. Ministry of Public Safety report ranked the southern Interior city with the highest crime rate only second to Prince George.

Warmweather attracts people living with homelessness

Penticton Mayor John Vassilaki says the milder climate in southern Okanagan has attracted many homeless people, yet his city is the only jurisdiction in the region having supportive housing for this population.

"Why shouldn't they come here? This winter, we've had nothing but spring weather, completely different thanthe weather you've been getting up in Kelowna with all the snow you've been having," Vassilaki told Chris Walker, the host of CBC's Daybreak South.

"They all come here hoping that they'll get a free bed and a free meal, which is nothing wrong with that at all, but they come from the surrounding areas [in the region] because we're the only ones in the southern Okanagan that have supportive housing in our community, [while] none of the other communities want it, nor do they have it," the mayor said.

In a written statement to CBC News, the District of Summerland a 15-minute ride north of Penticton wrote it hopes to build supportive housing units with help from B.C. Housing.Butthe Town of Osoyoos theOkanagan'ssouthernmost municipality says it has 47 supportive housing units, which are not funded by B.C. Housing.

Vassilaki says reports to RCMP mostly concernthe three supportive housesfacilities in Penticton that provide a host of services such as wellness checks and employment skills to transition to a more stable life.Burdock House, Fairhaven and Compass Court all funded by B.C. Housing offer a total of 123 units.

The Crown corporation also funds almost 630 supportive homes in Kelowna, Vernon, Salmon Arm and Kamloops, none of which are in the south Okanagan.

Reduce stigma attached to homelessness

Tanya Behardien, chair of 100 More Homes Penticton, says her advocacy initiative has been working with the government and the local community to provide the resources homeless people need and reduce the social stigma attached to them.

"If they're struggling with mental health and addictions it usually leads back to some type of trauma," she said on Daybreak South."We really see people as people; we can enter into a space where we can be more helpful to them."

Behardien also suggests Pentictonlaunch a by-name list which has been implemented in some cities in New Brunswick and Ontario to keep track of all people living with homelessness by their names so that each of them can get the housing they need.

Tap the link below to hear John Vassilaki's interview on Daybreak South:

Tap the link below to hear Tanya Behardien's interview on Daybreak South: