On West Victoria Street crime, VisionQuest ‘part of the solution, not the problem’

Rosethorn House is run by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), which is trying to keep the situation under control.

“Our role is to ensure that when people come here for services that they understand the Good Neighbour Agreement, they understand what the community is looking for as far as housing providers and shelter providers to work together,” said executive director of CMHA Kamloops, Alfred Achoba. “When people come into town, that is what we’re pushing for.”

The City of Kamloops and CMHA have both seen an uptick in people coming into town. The City accused VisionQuest, the men’s recovery centre outside of Logan Lake, of dropping people off.

“I’m not sure if, specifically, you can point it to them, but I know there have been concerns around people being dropped off here,” noted Achoba, who said security notified them of VisionQuest dropping people along West Victoria Street. “We want to ensure there is a continuity of care when people are discharged into town, so that means having access to resources, housing. If people are just dropped off without any of that, it’s not ideal.”

VisionQuest says it has dropped the occasional client off in Kamloops, but it’s not preferred. Staff would ultimately like the clients to stay on site to get the help they need. While they do everything in their power to encourage them to keep going with the program, they cannot force them to stay.

“It’s frustrating. We’ve done our best to carry these clients through. When they make a decision that they don’t want to stay, we spend a lot of time trying to change their minds. When they’ve made that decision and they’re going and there’s nothing we can do to stop, we try to get them back to their communities. We try to get them into another recovery society that is maybe more suitable,” noted Worley. “We drop them off at a shelter as a last resort. It’s not something we’re happy about, but there’s no other option for us.”

Instead of leaving them in the cold, they have an obligation to keep a client safe.

“If they walk out on a day like today, they’ll freeze to death,” said Worley, noting it’s 40 minutes to both Kamloops and Merritt, where the nearest services are. “We’re required by the Assisted Living Registry, whenever possible, if someone is to leave our facility that we need to take them to a place that’s safe, that has services — and that’s a shelter.”

Hamer-Jackson says VisionQuest is part of the solution, not the problem. He feels there needs to be more recovery beds to help the people on the streets.

“How do you put 300 people that are struggling with mental health and addiction and criminality, how do you put 300 of them in a 1.5-kilometre range and have two people, or very few, looking after them?”

by Chad Klassen

On West Victoria Street crime, VisionQuest ‘part of the solution, not the problem’

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