(Photo credit: CFJC Today).

By Stephanie Swensrude

HOMELESS GRANT

City of Kamloops to have outreach workers join Community Service Officers on foot patrol

Apr 13, 2022 | 4:59 PM

KAMLOOPS — The City will hire outreach workers from social agencies like ASK Wellness to accompany Community Services Officers on foot patrols.

Outreach workers help connect unsheltered homeless people with shelters and services.

“It’s incredibly difficult to get those people connected to services, because obviously with no fixed address it’s difficult to coordinate much of anything,” said Jeremy Cain, outreach director at ASK Wellness.

“Those outreach workers are essentially a lifeline through the facilitation of services.”

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Cain said outreach workers have a different understanding of the homelessness crisis.

“[Outreach is] really the only way to get a knowledge of individuals who are currently living on the street,” he said.

“The outreach workers have an incredible breadth of knowledge when it comes to who they recognize, who might be new to the community.”

The City will hire the equivalent of nearly three full-time employees for the CSO Outreach program. Cain said the program will bring a different perspective to CSO workers, who focus on enforcing bylaws.

“Certainly [CSOs] have a lens for enforcement, there’s no doubt about that — that’s appropriate and we encourage that. But when they’re trying to get folks help and linked to services, it then makes sense to me that they would be paired with more traditional outreach services,” said Cain.

The program will be reimbursed if the city is successful in their application for the Strengthening Communities Service Program. Social, Housing and Community Development Manager Carmin Mazzota presented the City’s application for the grant to council Tuesday (April 12).

The grant application is also asking for more than $700,000 for 24-7 security patrolling Victoria Street West and the Tranquille Market Corridor.

Some councillors wondered if the money wouldn’t be better spent on something other than security.

“There’s a lot of money allocated in the grant proposal for more security. Security can’t really do anything other than move people along. Throughout all of this I keep saying all we’re doing is moving people along, we move them along and when we see them again we say, ‘Move along,’” said Councillor Dale Bass.

The money would also go toward continuing the Envision shuttle service that brings homeless people to shelters. Mazotta said the service brought 30 people per day to shelters during cold periods in December and January.

About $143,000 would go to continuing the Sharps Recovery Peer Program. That program employs those with lived experience with poverty, homelessness and substance use to pick up sharps and refuse and make connections with people experiencing homelessness

“If anything gets through to people who live on the street, it’s people who know what it’s like to live on the street. It’s people who know what it’s like to have an addiction, to have a mental health issue, and [are] able to talk that language to people,” said Bass.

If the City’s application is successful, it will receive the money by the summer.