By Scott Strasser
Record Staff
The Downtown Courtenay Business Improvement Association (DCBIA) and the Comox Valley Coalition to End Homelessness (CVCEH) are forming an action plan to address issues that were recently brought forward about unwanted behaviour in the Courtenay downtown core.
The DCBIA had expressed their concerns about downtown behaviour, particularly from the city’s homeless population, to Courtenay City Council in June. In a letter to council, DCBIA president Jenny Deters mentioned “a dramatic increase” in incidences of panhandling, vagrancy, drug-use, public urination and other unwanted activities downtown.
“Sadly, it is getting to the point where some people coming to the downtown area do not feel safe — one of our businesses has had to endure the cost of hiring private security through the night,” she wrote.
To address the issues that were brought to council, the CVCEH and the DCBIA co-hosted a meeting on July 17. Twenty-two people were in attendance, representing downtown service agencies, the Courtenay Library, Island Health, the Chamber of Commerce and the RCMP.
Deters said two members of the DCBIA will soon attend CVCEH meetings.
“We are excited to announce that two of our members are going to begin attending Coalition meetings in the fall and we will work to support DCBIA members to get more information and develop better relationships with the service agencies and their clients,” she said in a statement.
CVCEH coordinator Andrea Cupelli said the coalition is excited to collaborate with the DCBIA.
“The coalition is really excited that the the DCBIA is so willing to work with us and learn about the issues downtown and how they can help,” she said. “We’re going to look into public washrooms and drinking fountains. We’re also looking to form a permanent drop-in centre. Hopefully we can utilize the business skills of the DCBIA to help with that.”
The coalition is also planning a tour for DCBIA members of the various service agencies located downtown.
“I think there’s sometimes a lack of awareness of what’s actually going on,” Cupelli said.
Grant Shilling, an outreach worker for the Dawn to Dawn Action on Homelessness program, believes the collaboration can help put a face to the issue of affordable housing in the Comox Valley. He pointed out that some of the challenges being experienced downtown are symptoms of larger societal problems, such as poverty, lack of housing, childhood trauma, lack of mental health and addiction prevention and treatment services.
“We’re all in this together. We all share in the downtown core. We’re all citizens. Nobody is different from anybody else because of their economics,” he said. “We have to start to recognize that the more we can make the downtown a friendlier place that includes everybody, and the more we can put a face to who we are, the better off we’ll be.”
In their most recent point-in-time count, conducted in April 2016, the CVCEH found there was a minimum of 157 homeless people living in the Comox Valley. That’s three times more than the 52 homeless living in Campbell River and almost as many as the 174 in Nanaimo. The next point-in-time count is scheduled for February or March 2018.
Shilling said the Comox Valley is currently in an “emergency situation” due to its lack of supportive housing, which is subsidized housing that provides 24/7 support to residents.
Supportive housing is meant for low income earners, those suffering from substance addiction or those requiring mental health support systems.
“We’re the only municipality that I know of on Vancouver Island that does not have any — not one unit of — supportive housing,” he said. “It is absolutely necessary to get supportive housing in the Comox Valley in the next year or two, if not sooner.”
“If people aren’t happy with homelessness, then let’s end it — please.”