By Lyonel Doherty, Times Chronicle
We don’t see a lot of evidence of homelessness in Oliver and Osoyoos, unlike Penticton.
The Peach City is rife with it, almost to overflowing. It seems everywhere you look there are “trains” of shopping carts piled unbelievably high with personal belongings and life stories. How they manage to pack these carts so efficiently to the hilt is an extraordinary feat that defies all known laws of physics.
I’ve never seen so much homelessness in Penticton. Ever. At a stop light, you will see half-naked men and women changing in the streets. Young people sit outside grocery stores hoping that the next customer who comes out doesn’t completely ignore them like all the others.
Offenders with backpacks run out of liquor stores with unpaid bottles of booze that will last them a couple of days if that.
What is really sad is seeing statue-like people with their heads buried in their hands for hours. And the lost souls mumbling to themselves or swearing at cars passing by. These were innocent children once who smiled and laughed as they frolicked and dreamed. What happened to them? How did they lose their way?
Some of them used to have a picket fence, a loving spouse and kids. It’s hard to survive out there because of the stressors of life for some and the traumas of mental illness for others. With fentynal contaminating the drug supply the homeless crisis has taken a deadly turn.
Someone once told me there is a fine line between having a roof over your head and living on the street. How true.
If they really want to make a reality TV show about survivors, look no further than the street – all the footage is there.
There’s more poverty, more crime, and more mental health issues that need more than lip service from politicians.
One potential solution to homelessness in B.C. is tiny home villages that are sprouting up in Victoria and Duncan. With the right initiative and funding, this could work in Penticton or any small city. The problem is where do you put them without running into the NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) syndrome? An emergency shelter proposal in Oliver was quickly shelved because residents in the neighbourhood resisted.
These tiny homes need to be situated in locations accesible to services and its difficult when neighbours or businesses are unaccepting. That’s the challenge.
We can’t forget the underlying problems of mental health and addiction, which are causing all kinds of havoc in our communities. More services, including prevention are needed.
Toxic drugs claimed the lives of 192 people in B.C. in July, according to the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General. That represents a 31 per cent increase over the number of deaths recorded in June (147), and equates to about 6.2 deaths per day.
B.C. premier hopeful David Eby recently suggested that involuntary treatment is part of the answer, but I’m not convinced that it is. But something has to happen to put an end to these ghastly statistics.
