‘This is a mess’: Residents speak up at Town Hall meeting

Emotions were flaring at the town hall meeting Tuesday, as hundreds of people aired their concerns surrounding vagrancy, crime and the controversial overdose prevention site.

“This is turning into a mess, our town is turning into a hell hole, that’s why they call it dirty Vernon,” business owner Diana Vana said.

“What’s it going to take? All of us going out of business for you to realize that this is a mess?” she asked.

All six members of council plus the mayor sat silently in front of the crowd as person after person took to the microphone to share their concerns.

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“The problem is spread wider than the downtown core. In my neighborhood alone in the last probably six weeks there has been probably 11 incidents, everything from auto theft, break-ins, and they are not just stealing your stuff they are stealing your joy,” one man said.

But with anger and frustration came compassion, with the formerly homeless and addicted speaking out.

“People are dying. I get it, there are problems. But people are dying,” Cheri Faris said adding she was formerly homeless and addicted to drugs at the age of 14.

“I got held accountable. I got compassion. I had people that believed in me, that didn’t give up on me, and I also had people that judged me,“ Faris said.

She has since graduated with two university degrees and gives back by working with the marginalized members of the community.

Another former addict, Candance Vey said she has been sober for 11 years following an addiction that spiraled out of control while living in the city.

“These are people’s lives. They are not throw away people,” she said.

Vey along with many others argued the city needs a detox center to help people reach sobriety.

“We have a window, when someone is ready to get clean and save their life, you have an hour, you might have a day and you know the obsession is going to come in and you missed it,” Vey said.

“Unless you detox you don’t know how painful it is, how physically ill you are, and when there is not treatment, when you are finished detox, what are you going to do?” Atland Fraser added.

Another topic that garnered a lot of attention was the location of the overdose prevention site.

The Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Vernon Association have stated their opposition toward having the OPS site in the downtown core.

Members of the groups advocated for the site to be located at or near the hospital, claiming the hospital has the resources needed to support addicts in the event of an overdose.

But some argued that a site at the hospital could bring about another host of problems.

“I do not want the Vernon Jubilee Hospital to become a hangout for drug addicted people. As much as I want to help them, and I really care and everything, I do not want our safe injection site to be at Vernon Jubilee Hospital,“ said one retired nurse who pleaded to council to consider the impacts on patients, seniors and staff.

Interior Health has yet to select a location for the Overdose Prevention Site.

The health authority put the brakes on the RFP process in April in order to consult with more stakeholders.

A total of six people have died in the city of Vernon in 2019 as a result of illicit drug overdose deaths, according to the BC Coroners Service.