West Kelowna’s transient population is being blamed for a surge of vandalism in the city.
Stacey Harding, Parks and Fleet Supervisor, has written a report that will go to council highlighting that an increased population in transients, potentially due to a new shelter and Kelowna’s redzone policies, has put undue pressure on the city itself.
“Historically, the City of West Kelowna has seen some issues with transients and homelessness and could identify seasonal milestones that would trigger the onset of unwanted activities,” reads Harding’s report, which will be presented on Tuesday.
“To a large extent our staff could predict this and focus resources on prevention measures to reduce costly vandalism by increasing contracted security and bylaw intervention.”
What’s changed, however, is the volume and severity of vandalism is ramping up and that’s overwhelming city staff’s ability to deal with it.
One of the examples Harding offers is Town Centre Park, which has seen every corner affected by errant behaviour.
Its community garden was stolen from and picnic tables were seriously vandalized.
There were frequent incidents of broken glass on the children’s spray park concrete pad and there were numerous cases of human excrement being found on washroom floors and in the toilet water tank.
Vomit and blood were found throughout all the facilities and homeless people were found bathing in sinks.
Over at the South Community Entrance sign there has been more damage.
Someone had shot at the sign with a low calibre weapon and tried, at least once successfully, to steal the solar light power system.
Other areas, like the Memorial Park Amphitheatre and the Elliot Road transit exchange have sustained similar damage.
“The nature of the garbage and the items left behind for disposal exposes staff and the public to biohazards of numerous kinds and has enhanced concerns that staff may potentially be exposed to new, dangerous; chemicals such as Fentanyl,” reads the report.
“This has necessitated the development of awareness and protection training recently implemented by the Health and Safety Committee.”
Harding pointed out that the cost isn’t just to city staff’s well being.
It also has affected the budget.
The Town Centre area needed $10,000 to replace broken and stolen items, and the dollar value of staff resources wasn’t even factored in.
The uptick in vagrant activity, said Harding, is due to a couple things.
First that the Emmanuel Assembly Church opened a winter shelter which houses sleeping quarters at night and dining facilities for breakfast and dinner.
“The shelter is a draw for the transients and according the the RCMP has increased the criminal element within the area,” said Harding, noting that the local library and area businesses have all highlighted the problem.
“These are unfortunate spin-offs from the church’s honourable, humanitarian efforts to better our community.”
He said some of those using the shelter or local parks have been identified as people who have been red-zoned in Kelowna and are seeking refuge in West Kelowna.
Harding said staff will continue to look at the issue, though they are currently working with other agencies, like the RCMP, to deal with the issue.