Port Alberni City Council has hired a consulting firm to bring together the various social service agencies currently working to help homeless people in the valley.
With a $443,000 grant from the province, Mayor Sharie Minions says the goal is to streamline services.
“It’s a fantastic thing and we’re really fortunate to have the provincial funding,” she said. “In Port Alberni we’re really fortunate to have many service providers, all serving our vulnerable members of the population, but there are some overlaps so we’re looking forward to having some of those services streamlined and being able to really focus in.”
Minions said the Community Safety Manager will work with a Vancouver-based consulting group to organize a ‘community hub’, bringing all non-profit and government agencies to the table to begin sharing priorities and working together.
City Council heard both sides of the homeless issue during their first in-person meeting in more than a year-and-a-half yesterday.
While accepting the grant from the province to provide improved services to local homeless and vulnerable populations, area home and business owners say the concentration of services in the lower 3rd and 4th Avenue area is spilling into their yards and workplaces.
Mayor Sharie Minions said the city is trying to balance the needs of everyone in that neighbourhood.
“It’s a fine line and there’s no easy answer,” she said. “We’re trying to make sure we attack this issue from many different angles and Bylaw is down there working with Parks and service providers and everyone is collaborating to hopefully keep our community strong as well as the people in it.”
Minions said she will be meeting with the Shelter Society to discuss safety and security issues around their Overdose Prevention Site which is seen as a hub of neighbourhood problems.
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