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This Week's Public Hearing Hurt My Heart...

   

A long and emotional public hearing on rezoning four pieces of city owned land to allow for affordable housing. In a nutshell, the provincial housing authority, BC Housing, is now asking communities to provide land on which affordable housing could be built. Kamloops city hall staff have been working to identify pieces of land already owned by the community for this purpose - wanting to avoid purchasing any new land.

All the land proposed is now being used as park space, or at the very least unmaintained recreation and wildlife space. One particular piece of land, on Cowan Street, has a lot of neighbourhood use and many people fought to keep the land zoned as is. Council, I feel, made the right choices in a difficult difficult process. Cowan Street keeps the park, and the three other areas get rezoned for affordable housing.

There was nothing pretty about this hearing. At its core, as many stated on the night, it pitted two groups of citizens against each other - those who supported park land and those who supported affordable housing. That's a pretty crude characterization. A lot of people support both, but the question on the night is what people wanted to do with these particular pieces of land. What's worse is that I know and respect and like many people on both sides. And, on the night, there was no real compromise to be had.

I am a huge advocate for affordable housing and I worry about the bad blood generated as we continue to work to end homelessness in Kamloops. Might it have been better if those who stood up on behalf of the plan, all of them who I respect and trust, conceded that the Cowan St plot should stay park? I am not sure, this is very much a question. I worry, though, about a reputation for balance and conciliation.

I've been at enough public hearings to know that homeowners rightly get very emotional when talking about a rezoning proposal they don't like. Some folks at this hearing got very heated and, in some cases, downright nasty. This really troubles me as well - especially the nastiness.

Solution? Well, that is a tough one. The one piece of land that got rezoned, at the top of 9th avenue at the corner of McMurdo Drive, caused a lot of community anxiety. I sincerely hope these folks will have their concerns adressed and, importantly, will over time feel good about any sacrifices they make. The vast majority concerns I heard at the public hearing, I believe can be addressed. Maybe, the future developers of the property should commit to sit down, one on one, with each person who raised concerns at the hearing. Perhaps, also, each person who expressed concern about any property decided upon should be personally invited to future forums on affordable housing.

The public hearing process in BC has a whole host of really bad problems in situations like this. Not sure what to suggest yet for potential solutions, but would like to put my head to this.

Formation of Kamloops Housing Board Starting On Right Footing...

I am very thankful to have been invited to meetings talking about the formation of a housing board in Kamloops. Such a board would act as a place of coordination, of education, and of recommendation for local affordable housing issues. Participating in a meeting today, it seems the board formation is in a good place. Lots of discussion on being inclusive in the membership of the board and on working collaboratively with government. Blake Collins, as planner at city hall very well versed in affordable housing issues in municipalities (he wrote his graduate thesis on the topic), will facilitate the board and is very interested in using the knowledge of the board to help inform his work.

The board is slated to meet a minimum of 4 to 6 times a year.

Uncle Peter Invites You on A Wonderful Civic Adventure...

I pray the Mayor (an indeed Uncle Sam) will forgive me for this awful copy and paste image.

Tomorrow is the last day to apply for a chance to go on a great adventure in citizenship. The City of Kamloops offers residents the opportunity to join one of many council committees. Lots of variety here and a great way to easily learn more about how city hall works. Check out the opportunities to serve on the arts commission, the heritage commission, the parks and recreation committee, the social planning council, or the airshed advisory committee.

Please Consider Supporting An Incredibly Important Program in Kamloops...

It was a tremendous honour to be asked by the good folks at Interior Community Services to participate in a really important fundraising effort. I've enrolled in a monthly donation program and am asking readers of YourKamloops.com if you will consider giving what you can - one time or monthly.

Over the past 18 months, the youth outreach workers in our community have assisted over 300 young people in accessing a whole range of services - housing, life skills, health care, and much more. The government funding for this program will run out in spring 2011 and I feel we can raise the requisite funds. We are looking to raise $100 000. Here is a short video and  PDFs you can download for more info:

Supporting Kamloops Youth Outreach Info Sheet ICS Pre-Authorized Debit - Donations Form 2010

Really Hard to Believe the RCMP Did Not Consult...

After all the growing pains coordinated efforts have been through, it is really hard to believe the RCMP did not consult with social agencies after arresting sex trade workers this past weekend. I am hoping there is some piece of information that did not get included in the article in the newspaper this morning.

I've been very supportive of the proactive efforts of our local detachment. Simply put, they have done an amazing job reducing crime in Kamloops and have been working cooperatively with other community safety partners.

I gotta wonder what happened here. New officer in charge of the arrests? Liason people on holiday?

Adventures at Royal Inland Hospital...

It's actually my father, as mentioned below, who is on a hospital adventure with his knee replacement surgery. I have just been visiting. With all the brouhaha over our local and/versus regional health services, it has been interesting to visit Royal Inland over the past few days.

First, the physical structures in our hospital seem to be showing their age. I noticed  wear and tear in the wards, masking tape directioals arrows, and a lot of stuff parked in hallways. I am not sure how this impacts the quality of care, though, as the nurses and doctors seem excellent and caring.

The parking maching for the parkade is not winning a lot of friends. I am not sure how new the system is, but most of the people waiting in line with me were really grumbling. I personally found the machines not too bad but then I am a bit of a geek.

Very Promising Community Plan to End Homelessness....Forum Last Night

Volunteers at the 2008 Kamloops Homeless Count

A lot of great work has been put into a process to develop a plan to end homelessness in Kamloops. Sponsored by Changing the Face of Poverty  and coordinated through the United Way, the plan development involved many community representatives from virtually all areas. 

The plan can be viewed here (web viewer) and here (pdf link). At the end of this post, I will also quote a good summary of the 6 goals in the Kamloops Daily News article by Mike Youds.

A lot of people attended the forum on the plan last night. I was really heartened to see Jason Fawcett from the Kelson Group, the city's largest landlord, speak about the innovating programs and the challenges in housing people who are formely homeless and may have addiction and mental health issues. A great number of city councillors and staff attended, as well as representatives from our MLAs and MP.

It was also wonderful to see a recognition from social agencies that they should be cooperating more and better sharing information. I think this situation has improved over the 4 or 5 years I have been paying attention, so there already good partnerships upon which to build.

Kamloops Daily News summary of the plan:

1. Establish a local housing board to assess the problem, enhance the stock of acceptable housing and respond to market changes.

2. Provide greater housing stability and reduce evictions through housing support agreements and a homeless resident program.

3. Connect people with the help they need (improve outreach and adopt a network approach to support services).

4. Build basic skills needed to maintain housing and financial independence (improve access to life skills coaching).

5. Improve fairness, accessibility and responsiveness (create changes to laws, procedures, regulations and protocols).

6. Help people find and maintain employment.

Draft Detailed Agenda for the Sustainable Kamloop Plan Public Forum, April 17th 2010

Here is the draft agenda for the forum - in the Scribd viewer below.

My main question right now which I will ask this week: How much time will there be for questions and discussion? Is this more a presentation format type of forum?

Sustainable Kamloops Forum Draft Agenda - April 17th 2010

Changing Face of Poverty Meeting - Highlights

Last Wednesday, at the monthly Changing the Face of Poverty roundtable, many items of note were discussed, including:

• a new brochure created by a TRU social work student that provides a snapshot of "poverty at a glance" in Kamloops. It's a good accessible way to get a broad picture of the challenges low income people face.
• a public forum will be held on the homelessness action plan on April 11th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at the United Church, downtown. (I should write a separate post on this)
• the TD bank offers banking services for low income people (without large fees, and lots of red tape, etc)
• income assistance will start to be cut off for people who have outstanding criminal warrants to deal with. Some exceptions might be made (eg. singles with children).

For more info on any of this stuff,

Call: 250.374.2119 ext. 200    Email: louise@kamloopsefry.com

Why has BC Government Stopped Worrying Out About Public Opinion on Gaming?

Given the financial contribution and social impact of local gaming facilities, Sean Holman's recent post is an important read.