At the end of the day, Town of Osoyoos council really had no other options.
On Monday, Mayor Sue McKortoff and members of council revealed that they could “not provide a location to homeless people to camp and/or locate their belongings.”
The reasons for making this decision included “liability issues”, community impact and being unable to meet expectations of services from the Town for such things as monitoring of homeless people, providing washroom facilities and clean up and maintenance of such an area.
“Providing such space to homeless people to camp could enable an action that could further deteriorate their health if they remain outdoors (future liability),” read the final motion.
This decision comes several weeks after community leader Brenda Dorosz, a founder of the Osoyoos Gift Cupboard and the Save Our School committee formed when it appeared Osoyoos Secondary School was going to be closed down in 2016, had asked council to consider finding a permanent home for Osoyoos’ most iconic homeless person, Vince Sam.
Dorosz had asked council to consider setting aside a small piece of public property so Vince could pitch his tent to sleep at night and store his worldly possessions in a safe area.
First things first. Vince is a wonderful man who is beloved by virtually everyone who has met his acquaintance over the many years he’s decided to live on the street in his adopted hometown.
Because he’s so popular and such a friendly guy, too many local residents to mention go out of their way to help him.
One local restaurant even goes so far as to provide him with at least one hearty and healthy meal every single day.
Many residents leave bottles and other recyclable materials outside their residence so Vince can pick them up and cash them in at the local bottle depot.
This community has been providing wonderful support to Vince for more than two decades and there’s no doubt that support will continue.
Dorosz and her supporters were only trying to help Vince, noting his overall health is diminishing as he gets older.
As has been mentioned numerous times in the past several weeks since Dorosz appeared before council asking for their support, Vince doesn’t ask for help from anyone and he appears to be quite content with his life on the street.
When people do offer heartfelt assistance, he graciously accepts and that’s why he’s been able to survive without a place to call home all these years.
He always has warm clothing provided to him, food to eat and other basic necessities like a tent and sleeping bag are always made available to him.
As difficult as it likely was to make a final decision, council really had no choice ruling the way it did.
Providing a public space to one individual would have set a dangerous precedent and the liability issues were immense not only for the Town, but also local taxpayers.
Council has shown its willingness to get involved in any community-led initiative to try and tackle the issues relating to homelessness in Osoyoos.
Considering this community’s long history of helping the less fortunate, there’s little doubt a community committee will come forward very soon to try and work on this growing problem.
Until then, there’s no doubt local residents will continue to assist Vince whenever possible.
