I feel that I have to respond to a recent letter to the editor signed by Independent Living Vernon.
The letter itself seems to be written by two different people with opposite viewpoints: the first concerned about the “garbage, drug paraphernalia, sharps, feces, urine and violence,” created by the folks camping on 25th Avenue, and the second concerned that I am not welcoming them with open arms. I’m honestly not sure what to make of it.
We recently welcomed hundreds of fire and flood evacuees and housed them in local buildings where they maintained family life as best they could under intense emotional distress until they were able to return home to rebuild their homes and lives. Their presence helped support our economy, their gratitude enriched our lives, and the pressure on our social and protective services was minimal. By way of contrast, a much smaller number of folks living in our parks and on our boulevards, many of them transients from elsewhere, have strained our social, police and bylaw services to the limit. If the problem were solely a lack of affordable housing, it would be easy to solve using the same resources as we did with the evacuees, but with mental illness and drug addiction, the complexity of the issue is increased by orders of magnitude.
There is little doubt that every citizen in Vernon feels empathy and concern for the marginalized, and I share those feelings too. Many organizations are doing what they can to alleviate the problems faced by this population, and it is understandable that their focus is exclusively on those needs. I also understand why some of the members of these organizations would see any criticism of the campers as an attack on the most helpless. But as a Vernon city councillor, my responsibility is to all of the citizens of Vernon. Many citizens and business owners have approached me with concerns about safety, loss of income, crime and a general degradation in the liveability of our city.
These citizens have built lives and businesses here in Vernon and feel that they were under siege in 2017. Some have expressed fears that they will have to close their businesses if the influx of seasonal transients occurs again next year. It is my duty to help those people too, and I will continue to advocate for enforcement measures that send an unmistakable signal: Vernon is a welcoming city, but we are not going to tolerate a descent into blight and lawlessness.
Scott Anderson
Vernon city councillor
