Bylaw officers in Summerland have been working to deal with camps of unhoused people in the community.
In May and June, bylaw services and public works staff attended nine encampments and two illegal dump site cleanups. The largest of these required 12-person hours of work and resulted in two dump truck loads of garbage removed, Brad Dollevoet, director of development services said in a report to Summerland council.
The encampment cleanups have been smaller and less time-consuming, but have still required municipal staff time, he said.
In his report, Dollevoet said bylaw officers are seeing an increase in the number of people with serious mental health and addiction issues at these camps.
“While many of these cases have chosen to move on to communities with additional services, the unhoused represent a significant resource draw on bylaw enforcement staff,” he said.
One camp was in the wooded area behind St. Stephen’s Anglican Church. Another was in Giant’s Head Mountain Park.
The encampment in the park was rebuilt soon after it had been dismantled, requiring municipal staff to attend this location twice.
Summerland staff have attended these scenes quickly before the encampments become well-established, Dollevoet said. However, the encampments are often set up shortly afterward, in new locations.
“It is a trend that’s growing every year,” Dollevoet said. “It was bad last year at this time. This year it’s worse."
