“Compassion isn’t allowing [people] to kill themselves on the street… compassion includes some form of mandatory rehabilitation.”

—Julius Bloomfield

Like almost every other mayor in BC and beyond, Julius Bloomfield has his hands full.

Since he moved from Penticton city councillor to the mayor’s chair in 2022, he and his council have been grappling with repeated crime, drug overdoses, homelessness, and rampant, untreated mental illness and addictions on his city’s streets, causing havoc for his residents.

He estimates about 200 people in the community are without a home, with 140 or so using shelters and the remainder choosing, for a myriad of reasons, to live on the street.

‘We are judged by the people dying in the streets. And so we should be.’

Among those who are street entrenched, a portion are committing a disproportionate amount of the city’s crimes – one person has 400 police files and 15 Individuals have 1,300 files between them.

“When you’ve got a prolific offender going out there and literally racking up one file every other day. That person has some problems and there’s obviously no consequences to what they’re doing,” Bloomfield said.

“You can lock them up, but that’s dealing with a symptom. If you talk about rehab, then you’re dealing with a cause.”

Bail reform and mandatory care

Bloomfield is calling for bail reform to keep prolific offenders off the streets, more Crown counsels so the justice system has the resources to deal with the high caseload, and involuntary treatment for the most severely addicted people with mental illness and brain injury.

The mayor even knows one secured facility in the Okanagan where the province can potentially provide involuntary care for hundreds of people very quickly.

Penticton is starting to make progress

While the challenges are similar in communities across the province (and country), Penticton has implemented a unique, multi-pronged response that is starting to show positive results.

Under Bloomfield’s leadership, the city hired a social services co-ordinator, a manager of protective services, and a whole lot of bylaw/peace officers. The administration also works cooperatively with shelter and recovery home operators, the health authority, RCMP, and more.

While violent crimes are still stubbornly high, Penticton’s efforts are showing promise on property crime and overdoses.

The city is doing what it can, but health care, housing and the justice system are largely the purview of the provincial and federal governments, so communities can only do so much and need the higher levels of government to ramp up their efforts to meet the crisis, Bloomfield said.

All this and more in our podcast conversation.

Fran

Note: Two days after Bloomfield and about 50 other mayors stood on the legislative steps and issued an urgent call for action on bail reform and mandatory care, Premier David Eby announced his government would build out 100 new secured involuntary care beds in Prince George and Surrey.

Podcast producer: Rob Shaw

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