A GoFundMe, launched last week, looking to raise money to take the City of Kelowna to court over two homeless camps has disappeared.
The GoFundMe page was appealing to the “Citizens of Kelowna” to raise $50,000 to organize a class-action lawsuit against the city.
“No more open drug use. No more property crime, no more needles, no more intimidation, and no more empty words from impotent and ineffective officials,” read the GoFundMe page.
The page is no longer available on GoFundMe and the campaign for a class action law suit has apparently been dropped.
Originally the page was created following outrage after the city decided to move the tent city on Leon Avenue to two parks on the north side of downtown, including a site on a baseball diamond on Recreation Avenue next to the Kelowna Curling Club and another site at the base of Knox Mountain.
Local residents, business owners and the very people living in the tents have all voiced concerns about the city’s unilateral decision.
Then this past Saturday, residents gathered in the Kelowna Innovation Centre to discuss and share their confusion over the city’s decision.
READ MORE: Knox Mountain, north end Kelowna residents gather to petition city over homeless camp relocation
While various speakers acknowledged the difficulty when it comes to homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness, a petition was started to lobby the city to find a better place for people experiencing homelessness to live.
Downtown Knox Mountain Association said that Knox is a welcoming place but the city’s ill-conceived decision needs to be addressed and that both the city and the province of B.C. need to find better options to help the homeless population and keep the nearby communities safe.
“It’s not an ‘us versus them’ problem. It’s a city problem,” said one concerned speaker.
READ MORE: Kelowna’s homeless unhappy with temporary overnight shelter situation
