"Where's the rural part to this conference?"
After the recent Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) housing summit held in Vancouver, Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne said he and other rural-area mayors were left confused by the gaps in solutions provided to them.
One of the UBCM panels was about tackling homelessness, with speakers from the Ministry of Housing and representatives from other municipalities presenting how their communities have tried to address these challenges.
During the conference, Jason Lum, chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District, talked about the challenges of dealing with homelessness in a rural area.
"For over 20 years, homeless counts have occurred out of the Fraser Valley and until more recently, this has largely excluded the electoral areas, largely because of funding," he said, adding this year the count will be able to expand.
"The recognition that it's not going to be a one size fits all solution...When we talk about spreading the peanut butter, for too long, I think the rural areas have felt like they're the crust. We want an even spread of that funding around out to different rural areas."
Lum said rural areas are seeing different challenges when dealing with homelessness, such as encampments on Crown land generating a large amount of waste and causing environmental challenges.
He added that there is "clear and mounting evidence" that homelessness is even more prevalent in rural communities than in urban centres.
Later on in the meeting, Coyne spoke up to thank Lum for addressing the divide and how he sees it impact his town.
"So far, you've been the only one that's really addressed the rural/urban divide here. And a lot of this has been services that are provided in urban areas, but not so much in rural areas. It’s almost been 50 years since we got a BC Housing development in our community. And we don't have all these services everybody keeps talking about, that we should be accessing," Coyne said.
"So I guess my question is, how do we fix that? Where do rural communities come into the picture here, because our homeless population is growing by the day? And it's not getting any better. We’ve got people living in the bush, we’ve got people living along the river, on the highway, right of ways, you name it, they're living there.
"And I have no tools in my toolbox to deal with this."
Coyne said he continues to ask for a Point-in-Time count, but can't get a response back from the ministry.
Megan Will, assistant deputy minister for the Ministry of Housing, responded by saying she has heard about the challenges facing rural communities, especially as it relates to homelessness.
"I think in those communities in particular it is a very individualized situation and requires a unique solution. And what I have observed, time and time again is that we'd be happy to make a connection and sit down and understand the challenges that you're facing, and work with you to try and come up with partner and innovative solutions to be able to make a difference in your community," she said.
"I know that BC Housing has entered into a lot of programs to be able to be innovative with housing, new housing developments that are coming online. If you're building a fire hall, you want to put housing above it — supportive housing, it could be affordable housing, I’ve seen BC Housing do incredible things to be able to meet that need and make it work in communities that perhaps feel as though they don't always rise to the top."
She finished by saying she would be happy to have a conversation about the issues in the community and how the ministry can partner with them to help create solutions.
Coyne spoke with Castanet after the housing summit and said he raised his point at the meeting because he felt frustrated.
"I can't speak for all rural communities. But I think those of us that were there kind of walked away with more questions than answers, and still not feeling like we are being enough of a focus," he said.
"There's a real feeling in rural British Columbia that sometimes we don't count as much as urban areas. And I know that's a big statement. And I know there's gonna be a lot of people that don't agree with me on that. But there really is a lack of focus on what's happening in rural British Columbia.
"Why don't we count the same?"
Coyne said when it comes to providing supportive or subsidized housing, there needs to be support systems in place for people that would be going into the housing programs that are available, and Princeton doesn't have a majority of those programs.
"Overall rural communities just don't have the same access to resources and support systems that they have in an urban area," he added. "We have to go to Penticton or Kelowna to get that assistance and then that puts strain on the system in Penticton, or the strain on the system in Kelowna as well. So it's not solving any of the problems. It's just transferring them from one community to another."
The centralization of services in these larger areas creates further gaps for those living in more remote communities.
"When we get a mental health worker that's coming from Penticton, they're on the road for almost three hours of their day. That's three hours they're not working. If it's somebody coming in from Kelowna, we're looking at almost half their day on the road," Coyne said.
"That doesn't help the community and it doesn't help the people that are needing those services. So we need community services with people who are from the community, people who are willing to live in the community to be able to provide that level of service as needed."
Coyne said there needs to be some funding directly for rural British Columbia for subsidized housing.
"We haven't had any subsidized housing from BC Housing since the 1970s in Princeton, that's a long time ago."
He also wants there to be a dedicated rural component to the Ministry of Housing, whether it's a parliamentary secretary or a couple of staff members.
"I don't want to badmouth the province. I mean, they're working with us and they're trying, but I think there's way too much focus right now on, dare I say, downtown Vancouver."
Coyne said he will be following up on the assistant deputy minister's offer and will be holding the ministry "accountable."
-With files from Kristen Holliday
