An advocate for the homeless, Crystal Clear is encouraging the Town of Oliver to host a meeting in order to help people who need emergency shelter.
(Photo by Keith Lacey)
A woman who has been trying to help the homeless since moving to Oliver in April said there’s a serious lack of coordination of services to help the less fortunate in this community.
Crystal Clear, 63, a mother of three who has worked hard her entire life before having to battle some serious health issues over the past two years, has vowed to lead a one-woman crusade to improve the quality of services offered to the homeless in Oliver.
During a recent interview, Clear said she would be seeking a request to appear before town council as soon as possible to make a presentation about what she sees is the lack of communication amongst social service agencies – and church leaders – in Oliver.
There are a lot of wonderful people in Oliver doing wonderful things to try and assist the less fortunate and homeless, but there’s a serious lack of communication and coordination of services and that has to change, said Clear.
“There are services, but a lot of people who need help the most don’t know about them,” said Clear. “Since I moved to Oliver in April, I’ve been working with the homeless people in town every single day and I can tell you most of them don’t know where to go to get help.”
The lack of affordable housing is the biggest issue facing the homeless, but there are many other issues that need to be addressed as well, said Clear.
Over the past two weeks, Clear has been distributing a letter to various social services agencies and local churches to try and gain support to hold a town hall meeting to address the serious issues facing the homeless in Oliver.
Her letter reads: “We challenge the Town of Oliver and the 15 churches we have in this small town … funding will help for the housing we need and for the much-needed accommodations for the people who come from all over the world to work in the orchards with no place to have a shower or a place to set up their tents.
“We need a shelter for men and women for all the transients, homeless people and tourists, or for anyone who finds themselves in a position to need shelter. We would like to call a meeting at the town hall from the churches to our local MLA Linda Larson and a B.C. Housing representative.
“If we all work on these issues, we will have a men’s and women’s shelter. We also need a soup line like St. Vincent de Paul has in Prince George, but on a smaller scale of course.
“I have another question. How come we have no Salvation Army here, where Penticton has two? With the new Okanagan Correctional Centre in town, they will be employing a lot of people, again creating more housing problems.”
She has dropped off the letter to Mayor Ron Hovanes, Larson’s office and several social service agencies and numerous local churches.
Clear, who was born and raised in Snow Lake near Flin Flon, Manitoba, has worked hard her entire life – mainly as a cook at remote camps in northern B.C. and Alberta.
Her last contract as a camp cook was in Fort St. John in northern B.C. back in 2014.
She then “fell seriously ill” and could not work for the past two years, but has applied to try and get a job in the kitchen at the Okanagan Correctional Centre.
She moved to Oliver in April to be closer to her sister Valerie and her stepfather, the man who raised her, who recently retired in Osoyoos.
A gregarious woman with a big laugh, Clear said she has been “couch surfing” with her sister and numerous friends as she’s tried to recover from her medical issues since moving to Oliver six months ago.
When she was working in Fort St. John, it “broke her heart” when two First Nation men were refused entry into a homeless shelter and froze to death.
“Since then, I’ve been dedicated to trying to help poor people … I want to try and make a difference,” said Clear.
Clear has been using the Oliver Food Bank on a regular basis and couldn’t say enough kind things about the assistance she has received there.
Clear reiterated what irks her the most is the lack of communication and coordination between agencies and community leaders, which means the majority of homeless people don’t know where to go or who to turn to.
“It’s the lack of coordination of services that bothers me the most,” she said. “There are so many people trying to do good things and help, meanwhile the homeless don’t know where to go and don’t have any idea about what services there are in town to help them.
“I would like to see the entire community to come together (at a town hall meeting) to discuss these issues.”
Clear said the average Oliver citizen “would be shocked and surprised by how many homeless and extremely poor people are living in this town.”
Clear is confident Hovanes and members of council will agree to her request to make a presentation about these issues at an upcoming meeting of town council.
Clear said she’s quietly been an advocate for positive social change most of her adult life.
“When I was running a business in Thompson, Manitoba as a young woman, I got peed off because no one in town was holding a Terry Fox Run,” she said “I contacted the radio and TV station and organized the thing myself. We raised $32,000 that first year. I was very proud of that.
“My goal in life is to try and make things better and that’s what I’m trying to do here in Oliver.”
By Keith Lacey
