VIDEO: Council candidate Indy Dhial wants to get down to the root causes of homelessness

Indy Dhial left a corporate job, and created a small business, a daycare, so he could be more involved with his growing children.

Now he wants to turn his attention to his growing city.

"I had an opportunity to leave, help raise my children and give back to the community," said the 38-year-old who walked away from a job at Shaw Communications.

"It's so powerful to be able to give back and work with the children."

Dhial said starting the business gave him a new perspective.

"It's given me the opportunity to see the big picture as well as the small picture, small businesses and be able to make tough decisions," he said.

He shared his thoughts about how we can help those living on the streets.

"Homelessness is a tough one," admits Dhial.

"People are one paycheque away from being homeless," he said. "Once you're there it's very hard to get out because of the housing costs."

And once on the street, he notes how easily people can slip into the grips of drug addiction.

"You need your drugs or whatever it is and then usually theft will occur," said Dhial.

"And then you're getting money for it and then how much do you have to steal to come up with the amount of money that you need to get your drugs so it's an ongoing cycle."

He suggests we need more direct outreach for the people caught in that cycle.

"We've got to find out what the actual individual's challenge is and see what we can do to help them," said Dhial.

"We've got to figure out what's actually wrong and go back to the grassroots of those problems," he added.

"To see what can we do to actually help them get back on their feet."

The life-long Kelowna resident doesn't mind the presence of high-rises in the downtown.

"I love the look of it," said Dhial "It has a big city feel."

But he said it requires planning.

"We have to have a proper mix. Some mid-level developments, maybe some smaller footprints..."

Dhial sees himself as ready to take it all on.

"When the planning happens for all these developments. Are we asking all the right questions to make sure that we're building the right way?"

To check out all of the candidates, visit KelownaVotes 2022.

Voting day is Oct. 15.