Vernon Homeless Numbers Increase

Photo: Annette Sharkey of Social Planning Council and Kelly Fehr of the John Howard Society at news conference Friday

Officials call Vernon’s latest homeless numbers “very concerning.”

Kelly Fehr, co-executive director with the John Howard Society, says a census this week shows 153 people identified as homeless.

“We do know there is about another ten individuals sleeping in vehicles, they just weren’t seen at this particular time so they weren’t included in the count. So that’s an increase of nine from this time last year, so that’s very concerning.”

Fehr says the census showed 44 people sleeping outside, with 27 of those at the Linear Park on 25th Avenue, and 15 at the north end of town.

Annette Sharkey, executive director of the North Okanagan Social Planning Council says the main reasons people are homeless are the high cost of rental housing, and the low vacancy rate, which is under 1 percent.

“For people who are particularly marginalized, we then get to to a place where there really are no options, so the only choice is to sleep outside,” Sharkey told a news conference.

Sharkey will be presenting more details, such as the male-female breakdown, and where the homeless are from, at Monday’s committee of the whole meeting at Vernon council.

“What I can say from the initial results, is the majority of the people have been here for more than a year.”

Sharkey says more supportive housing is the main way the issue could be addressed.

“If we had more supportive housing, we would be able to bring people in from the outside, give them a chance to stabilize and then be able to kind of move on with their lives as they have more programming and supports.”

On a positive note, the John Howard Society has received BC Housing funding for 23 winter shelter mats for 24 hours a day from November 1 to March 31.

“That’s rather than the traditional 12 hours,” says Fehr.” What this does, it gives people the ability to come in and they’re not just there for 12 hours and having to leave. That can be a bit of a deterrent because some people may rather bunker down for the day where they can stay warm, and so now they can do that in our shelters.”

Fehr says 10 of the mats will be at the Howard House which is now for both men and woman, and 10 mats plus three additional beds on the women’s floor will be at the Gateway Shelter.