Journey Home

Consultation has concluded

We're committed to developing a safe and inclusive community where people from all walks of life can find their home.

Journey Home is the strategy to address homelessness in our community with a focus on ensuring everyone has a place to call home. The long-term goal is to ensure a coordinated and easy-to-access system of care for those in Kelowna who have lost, or are at risk of losing their home.

The strategy will be an action plan that focuses on:

Ensuring a safe and healthy community for all citizens
Working toward Functional Zero - addressing homelessness; and when it occurs, ensuring it is rare, short-lived and non-reoccurring
Promoting collaboration and coordination of services and resources to support those who are vulnerable
Developing appropriate diverse forms of housing
Developing a strategy for long-term funding
Developing multi-sector partnerships so that public investment can be targeted towards the goal of reducing homelessness

For more information about Journey Home, visit kelowna.ca/journeyhome.

Follow the journey and sign up for updates.

We're committed to developing a safe and inclusive community where people from all walks of life can find their home.

The strategy will be an action plan that focuses on:

Ensuring a safe and healthy community for all citizens
Working toward Functional Zero - addressing homelessness; and when it occurs, ensuring it is rare, short-lived and non-reoccurring
Promoting collaboration and coordination of services and resources to support those who are vulnerable
Developing appropriate diverse forms of housing
Developing a strategy for long-term funding
Developing multi-sector partnerships so that public investment can be targeted towards the goal of reducing homelessness

For more information about Journey Home, visit kelowna.ca/journeyhome.

Follow the journey and sign up for updates.

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

Instead of catering to the criminal junkies that are taking over our town, why not cater to the needs of the actual tax paying citizens? Most of these assholes aren't even from Kelowna, why doesn't the journey home put these clowns on buses and actually SEND THEM HOME? Time to get tough. I know I will be.

JimJ2447 asked almost 2 years ago

We do recognize that we have an increase in street-level crime in a few of our urban centres that negatively impact our community. The issues that we are experiencing are complex and require all levels of government, enforcement and social agencies to work together to develop holistic strategies to address the underlying social issues that can lead to criminal activity. Journey Home is a piece of this puzzle.

The focus of the Journey Home Strategy is to address homelessness in our community with an emphasis on housing first. It is important to remember that criminality and homelessness are not one and the same. We know that most people who are experiencing homelessness are not involved in criminal activity, but we also know that there are those involved in the drug trade who prey on these vulnerable residents and engage in crimes of opportunity.

The RCMP has several crime prevention programs in place that target true criminals involved in street-level drug activity, trafficking and organized crime. Looking ahead to summer policing, from July to September four joint RCMP/Bylaw bike teams will patrol downtown and surrounding areas. The public will also notice more RCMP and Bylaw officers out patrolling the streets on foot and in cruisers for increased safety.

Operational plans are being put in place for special events, including the upcoming Centre of Gravity in City Park, where a no-tolerance approach to drug criminal activity will be enforced. The ongoing Inadmissible Patron Program, which bans those involved in organized crime from frequenting restaurant/bar establishments, continues to be a priority.

We are implementing strategies and actions every day to address our residents’ concerns. While we will continue to monitor and respond to the need for Bylaw and RCMP to pursue those involved in criminal activity, we are also working to address the root problems in order to achieve long-term sustainable solutions and success.
Are all of the design labs during the work day? What opportunity is there for people to get involved in person if they can't leave work to attend?

sarahstang asked over 2 years ago

Good morning, there is a Design Lab this week that will occur in the evening on Tuesday, March 6 (6:30-8:30pm): Community Dialogue. This Design Lab will allow for a deeper dive into some of the complex issues surrounding homelessness from a local Kelowna context.
Key topics include:
• Support Services: meeting needs of those experiencing homelessness that are faced with addictions, mental & physical health challenges
• Meeting Priority Population Needs: Youth, Indigenous Peoples, Women, Families, Seniors, Ethnocultural, LGBTQ2S
• Public Education & Understanding: Curbing stereotypes, building public support and will to end homelessness
• Housing: addressing affordability challenges, building supports into housing models, innovative solutions
If you are able to attend, we invite you to register by following this link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/journey-home-design-labs-tickets-42914261712
Hi there, I am looking for meeting minutes but unable to locate - can you please direct me to minutes for meetings held to date? Thank you.

Donna Rivet - Piers asked over 2 years ago

Hi, meeting minutes when available will be posted on the Council Commitee page for the Journey Home Task Force at https://www.kelowna.ca/city-hall/council/committees/journey-home-task-force-0
Thank you!
Is this task force exploring the successes of other Canadian communities that have utilized the "Housing First" strategy? Lethbridge Alberta is one of them.

WW asked over 2 years ago

Hi,
We will be drawing from best practices that have been demonstrating positive results in addressing homelessness, including Housing First. The plan will use a homeless-serving systems strategy which is based on a community-wide, formalized and coordinated approach to integrated service delivery. The more fundamental move towards systems planning is necessary to achieve the integration of policies and practice required to support a Housing First approach. Learn more by visiting kelowna.ca/journeyhome. There is also a Council Report that has detailed information on the Homeless-Serving Systems Framework.
We know that there are disabled people who are homeless. I applaud the lived experience circle, and hope that this continues to be used in other consultations with vulnerable groups. A small number of the homeless community are also wheelchair users, which makes housing options even more complicated, once all the other aspects of homelessness have been taken into consideration. I wonder if you are aware of a pilot project in Vancouver, called the Right Fit, which aims to fit wheelchair users with suitable accommodation. It’s not aimed at homeless wheelchair users, but I’m sure there’s parts that may be applicable. http://disabilityalliancebc.org/program/the-right-fit-pilot-project/

Mahewitt asked over 2 years ago

Hi! Thank you for sharing the link. We have forwarded it to our Healthy Housing Strategy team as the pilot program is aimed towards affordable housing rather than homelessness.
We will be working with the community and the lived experience circle to ensure the needs of all are met. We are sincerely committed to developing a safe and inclusive community where people from all walks of life can find their home.
If you haven't already, we encourage you to sign up for updates where we will send out any upcoming public engagement opportunities: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/CNKELOWNA/subscriber/new?topic_id=CNKELOWNA_115.

Journey Home

CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

Are all of the design labs during the work day? What opportunity is there for people to get involved in person if they can't leave work to attend?

Hi there, I am looking for meeting minutes but unable to locate - can you please direct me to minutes for meetings held to date? Thank you.

Is this task force exploring the successes of other Canadian communities that have utilized the "Housing First" strategy? Lethbridge Alberta is one of them.

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