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Kelowna mayor calls on public to get involved with homelessness initiative

Colin Basran is urging the public to participate in ‘design labs’ aimed at finding solutions
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The city has a 23-member task force working on a strategy to address homelessness in Kelowna. —Image: contributed

Kelowna’s mayor wants the public to have its say in the city’s initiative to address homelessness.

So Colin Basran is calling on residents to participate in what have been dubbed “design labs”— workshops that will take a deeper dive into some of the complex issues surrounding homelessness in Kelowna.

“I, and a number of my council colleagues hear a lot of comments and suggestions regarding the homeless in our community,” said Basran during Monday’s council meeting. “This is the public’s opportunity for those who want to share those comments with us to actually get involved in the process.”

Seven design labs have already taken place and seven more are planned between March 6 and 9.

For more information and to register for the design labs click here.

Basran said the city’s Journey Home initiative, now being led by a task force with the help of an internationally recognized consultant, is attempting to come up with a made-in-Kelowna-solution to homelessness.

The task force plans to present a strategy for moving forward to council later this year.

Meanwhile, on March 3, the Kelowna Gospel Mission will hold its annual Strides To End Homelessness walk to raise money to continue providing shelter beds, meals, outreach and casework for the homeless, and to support it’s 13-bed, second-stage transitional home called Harmony House.

The goal of this year’s walk is to raise $45,000 and the event will feature a five-kilometre walk or a 10-kilometre run.

The opening ceremony and the walk and run will start at 4 p.m. from the Gospel Mission on Leon Avenue downtown.

For more information click here.

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