District of Squamish has appointed a new director of public safety and stepped up patrols and monitoring around downtown homeless encampments, according to a press release by the district.
The new director will oversee the district’s emergency program, bylaw services and police services, and act as the senior link to the local RCMP. The district said the appointment brings added resources and oversight to the downtown response.
Bylaw officers, Squamish Fire Rescue and the RCMP are now running routine patrols of the downtown and other areas of concern, and district staff are monitoring the encampments regularly, the press release says. Bylaw officers have also been given specialized training in responding to homelessness.
District says crews have made physical changes at the encampment to create safe entry and exit points and to manage where people store their belongings. The district said it is removing debris and potentially hazardous materials from the site on a regular basis. Residents and businesses in the area will be briefed on the response in early September.
Alongside those immediate measures, the district says it is working with the provincial agency BC Housing on longer-term solutions. That work includes outreach teams helping people in the camps find accommodation and support services, a proposal for temporary housing funded by the province, and a permanent supportive housing project on Government Road that is still in the design stage.
“Addressing homelessness requires support from all levels of government,” Mayor Armand Hurford said. “Advancing short- and long-term actions at the same time will help to address current critical safety concerns for residents within encampments, response teams and the surrounding neighbourhood as the work on temporary and long-term housing supports continue.”
The district said several agencies have committed resources to the response, including the RCMP, Squamish Fire Rescue, BC Emergency Health Services, BC Housing, the Squamish Nation and the outreach group Squamish Helping Hands.
And yet another “directorship”. How many feet on the ground. What actual powers and effects are anticipated?
Totally agree. I am still wondering why we are encouraging encampments in the first place. Word on the street is that Squamish is welcoming the homeless community.
Agree. The local gov’t is destroying downtown Squamish by allowing this to go on.
Maybe do less to encourage the campers and the problem would solve itself.
Our council is not doing enough!
I called Bylaws recently to ask for a simple “drive by” to check on an ongoing noise situation – they said they had no resources for that. Yet they disperse Bylaw officers, Squamish Fire Rescue and the RCMP and district staff to oversee encampments. There should be no encampments allowed. Taxpayers are footing the bill for the garbage removal. We don’t have the resources to build social housing for all of them. They will just keep coming. We used to have a law, where campers were allowed to sleep in their tents overnight, then they had to move on in the morning.
The homelessness, drugs and violence has gotten so bad over the past year we moved. Shame.
The patrols should pair up with an expanded street reach program. Work together. Be responsive without being punitive. I know this can be done and that everyone can find their way around the naysayers and perceived barriers. This would invigorate the street reach program that needs to grow to meet the need. Street Reach program could include a Street Teach element. We need to educate the community on how we can help in very simple ways.