Open letter to mayor calls for better treatment of Kelowna's homeless

Re: City bylaw means fines for anyone resting on sidewalks

Dear Mayor Basran:

You say that the City of Kelowna does not intend to harass the homeless, but almost in the same breath you say you know most of the homeless will not be able to pay the fines levied for sitting or lying on sidewalks.

If you know they cannot pay such fines, why are you fining them? Obviously, that piles stress on to already stressed and highly vulnerable individuals.

In addition, you say the city does not intend to incarcerate the homeless, but you add that files will be created in the instance of bylaw offense and those files will be turned over to the police if the offender “is involved” in criminal activity.

I suspect you mean they will be turned over if the offender is suspected of a crime or charged with a crime. The crucial question is this: why does the city wish to confuse municipal bylaw jurisdiction with criminal law and get involved in the latter?

It’s an obvious move toward the criminalization of poverty. In fact, two weeks ago the RCMP arrested a homeless person for obstructing a sidewalk in Kelowna. Formally, the charge was ‘obstruction of justice’, which is ironic. What is being obstructed is justice for the homeless.

The homeless need housing, not handcuffs.

You say the bylaw is meant to prevent people from congregating on sidewalks and intimidating the public in the vibrant downtown business centre. Just the other day a homeless person wrote a letter describing the prejudicial treatment she received from a downtown business owner.

Is this business owner representative of the Downtown Kelowna Association membership, whose interests the City defends over the constitutional rights and freedoms of the homeless?

You have said the Gospel Mission is not at full capacity and has another location available should there be overflow. And you conclude “no one will be without a bed indoors if they want one.”

Mayor Basran, even low-barrier shelters such as the Gospel Mission, Inn From the Cold and the Alexandra Gardner Women and Children Safe Centre cannot accommodate all of those who end up homeless.

Couples, people with pets and active drug users can be left out in the cold. Just as important, few emergency shelters offer 24-hour support.

Inn from the Cold, for example, turns out its sheltered between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. These people inevitably end up sitting, crouching, lying and huddling on sidewalks at some point in what must seem a pointless, painful eternity.

The homeless need housing, not hounding from City bylaw officers and the police. They needed it yesterday. Thankfully the City is now engaged with homelessness, on its own and with partners, in the ways that you’ve described.

But this does not excuse your harassment and criminalization of the homeless. I call upon you to immediately end this blatantly discriminatory persecution.

-Dianne Varga, former Kelowna resident