‘Tents are not a solution to homelessness’: Safety concerns growing on Leon Avenue

More supportive housing is on the way in Kelowna, but it won’t be ready until the spring.

That’s creating issues for the City of Kelowna as it tries to manage safety and security along Leon Avenue, where a ‘tent city’ of sorts has popped up.

“Tents are not a solution to homelessness, housing with supports is the solution,” said Sue Wheeler, social development manager.

“While we have more than 100 units of housing scheduled to open in the spring, we are continuing to work with the Province, our community partners and those with lived experience to try and secure supports and an adequate number of overnight shelter beds to accommodate people currently sleeping outside.”

Darren Caul, Kelowna’s community safety director, says the City knows more shelter space is needed, but “we must respect the legal rights of people to shelter outdoors when there is no room in the existing shelters.”

In BC, law specifies that when there’s insufficient housing and shelter space for people experiencing homelessness, a municipality can’t prohibit all parks and public spaces from being used for temporary overnight sheltering.

Kelowna has identified Leon Avenue as the public space where it's not applying a prohibition against overnight outdoor sheltering, hence tent city popping up as the weather gets colder.

However, it doesn’t come without its fair share of issues.

“Our primary concern with the current use of tents for overnight sheltering is safety related,” said Kelowna Fire Chief Travis Whiting.

“Specifically, the close grouping of the tents with highly combustible materials around, and the observed use of unsafe heaters create a fire or carbon monoxide risk to the residents.”

City officials have been made aware of incidents of fires, propane explosions and injuries in cities that have similar groups of tents together.

While the main focus is continuing to try and find temporary shelter spaces for the winter, the City is trying to keep people safe and maintain order on Leon Avenue in the meantime.

RCMP foot patrols were added to the downtown core earlier this month, adding to the existing RCMP enforcement, bylaw services and DKA patrol teams that are already there.