An emergency homeless shelter seemed to be within reach but a potential lease agreement has crumbled. In the meantime other possible sites have been exhausted and shelter organizers must once again start from scratch. The homeless have moved back to the parking lot of the Upper Room Mission and everything has returned to the way it was a few weeks ago. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until several homeless people set up camp outside the potential location along 32nd Street. The rise in drug dealing on the property and the large number of people sleeping overnight appears to have convinced the owner to back out.
So why did the homeless move to the parking lot outside the Sigalet Centre? Apparently they were told to go there since the lease appeared to be a guarantee anyway. The person in question has denied making the remarks, so The Vernon Daily Courier has decided not to reveal the rumoured name. However, the next time someone decides to tell the homeless where to camp, maybe they should pick a better spot. A place with softer ground would be good, somewhere quieter and a little further from the town centre, perhaps even somewhere with its own bathrooms. The ideal outdoor campsite would be the Vernon Army Camp and DND lands. There’s plenty of space, it has a central location and there are enough unused buildings that people could take shelter inside on rainy and cold days. It even has camp in its name.
Not only that but as was explained relating to the Sigalet Centre, it’s up to the owner to remove people from the property. If people set up their tents on the DND grounds it would be up to the federal government to remove them. Hopefully, it would wake the government to the issue of a shelter shortage in Vernon. More shelters will not solve the homeless problem. However, if you’re female and homeless in Vernon there are no shelters available to you. There’s no choice but to sleep outside. Although the winter months may seem far away, it takes a long time to set up a shelter, even a temporary one. All levels of government and the community need to work together now to find a solution. Perhaps tenting at the army camp will draw some much needed federal attention to the situation.
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