(file photo/Vernon Matters Staff)

By Liam Verster

Motel Program

Provincial grant helped get unsheltered people off Vernon’s streets

Feb 13, 2024 | 5:00 AM

A grant from the B.C. Government helped some of Vernon’s unhoused population access shelter and get back on their feet.

Through the Strengthening Communities grant program, the City of Vernon received $1,246,373 in funding to be used between the summer of 2021 and January of 2024.

Annette Sharkey, Executive Director of the Social Planning Council of the North Okanagan, said the majority of the funds were used to bolster the motel program, run in partnership with Turning Points Collaborative Society.

“This was just absolutely needed during that time period,” Sharkey said.

“There were 49 participants that took part in the motel program that was funded by the Strengthening Communities, and it definitely did help, in particular during COVID when having people at the shelter it was more challenging to have social distancing in that space, so having separate motel rooms allowed for more flexibility for Turning Points if somebody did have COVID and allowed for isolation.”

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She added having people stay in the motel rooms led to some very positive outcomes.

“Even if the program was temporary, people were able to have a sense of having a home within that motel room,” Sharkey explained.

“The very exciting success around this is that all 49 participants of that motel program have secured permanent housing, and when we’re in the midst of a housing crisis this is incredibly good news, to actually hear there’s some success happening.”

Some of the motel program participants were able to find market-rate housing, while others have moved into supportive housing facilities.

Sharkey noted the program showed “people could be successful” when given the support to get off the streets, and the fact that everyone of the participants were able to get into their own permanent housing was “an amazing success story.”

Additionally, the funding also helped people struggling with substance abuse issues.

Some of the money went towards establishing a Substance-Use Navigator position, who worked with 212 different individuals, some of whom were referred to other means of care and a few others were able to get help getting into treatment centres.

Funding also went towards upgrading the shower and laundry services at the Cammy LaFleur street clinic. The clinic’s amenities were accessed 622 times during the funding period.

Another initiative run with the grant funding was improving staffing capacity of the bylaw team that works with homeless individuals.

“During that time frame, there were just over 2,100 files that were created, but I think the story behind this is the approach. The bylaw team really works closely with the homeless population, they know them by name, they work very closely with the outreach teams, and they bring an approach that is very much about reducing conflict and really trying to address issues maybe even before they happen,” Sharkey explained.

“This has been hugely successful. The COOL Team is ever so grateful for these bylaw officers and their approach. Then they also, for the wider community, for the business community, is showing there’s a bylaw resource that’s very specifically around working with this population.”

Sharkey added this approach helps reduce conflict, and that other officers wished to access more training to better respond to situations involving the homeless population.

A breakdown of how much of the funding was used for each of the initiatives was not provided, though it was stated that a financial report would be written up in the near future.

She noted her work was ongoing both locally as well as on a broader approach by collaborating with other service providers and organizations locally and in other communities to learn more on how to support the homeless populations now that the funding has run out.