Kamloops council, ASK Wellness hope review can increase funding for critical social issues facing city

For the past year, Hamer-Jackson has been asking for a third-party review of supportive housing paid by BC Housing. During an ASK Wellness presentation on Tuesday, he asked Bob Hughes about being part of a third-party review.

Hughes says the non-profit is all for a review, as long it’s conducted to better its operation.

“If it’s done in the interest of good faith, on building on the successes that we have had and that is done in a way that looks at it as an opportunity to improve what we’re currently doing, that’s something we want to participate in, that is something that makes sense,” he said. “But if it’s a witch hunt, if it’s to go pick one organization or two organization or whatever it may be, that’s a witch hunt, and that’s not something I’ll participate in.”

Hamer-Jackson responded, “What is a witch hunt and why would anybody think it’s a witch hunt? March of 2021, the previous mayor and council put together 10 motions and they included more nursing, more security, more, more. The only two agencies that got in front of CFJC and said this mayor and council is ‘throwing darts at us’ and Bob said that. It’s not a secret. He said they’re throwing darts at him. Then the next thing we know is we have this letter going out to all these agencies asking for the exact same thing that he called throwing darts at.”

Second-term councillor Bill Sarai first brought forward the idea of a review in a series of motions in 2021 to help deal with the social problems. He feels it hasn’t gone anywhere.

“What we got back a year later, seven months later, was review on BC Housing by BC Housing. I called it BS then and I call it BS now, said Sarai. “We need a review, and I don’t want to attack anybody. I want this review to identify the gaps we all know. We can see the gaps.”

Sarai hopes the review would put more pressure on Interior Health and BC Housing to work more closely together.

“I don’t see any concrete wraparound services for mental health and addiction, and I’m saying it openly — in my opinion, there are people on our street throughout B.C. but especially in Kamloops that need to be forced for treatment,” he said. “They need to be mandated to go get help for their addiction or for their mental health.”

Hughes hopes Tuesday’s presentation is a way to press the ‘reset’ button with council and the rest of Kamloops.

ASK Wellness and other social agencies, as they outlined in an open letter to the province and Interior Health last week, want to help turn around the crisis, but ASK and the entire city doesn’t have the government support it needs to help people with chronic mental health issues.

Hughes noted in an internal review of supportive housing in the Interior last year, ASK found that 17 per cent of Kamloops clientele had complex needs that were beyond supportive housing.

“There’s a section of the population that is so unwell that they cannot gain traction to get well in supportive housing and we need to have an alternative. We need to have something different,” he said. “Supportive housing [and] shelters cannot be the catch-all for all the social ills and the health issues we’re facing.”

by Chad Klassen

Kamloops council, ASK Wellness hope review can increase funding for critical social issues facing city

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