A transitional housing advocate in Kamloops is disappointed with outcomes at a special Kamloops council meeting Tuesday that aimed to find ways to deal with street issues.

ASK Wellness Executive Director, Bob Hughes, was responding to council voting in favour of 24-7 security at transitional housing complexes, and proposing patrols both downtown and on the North Shore.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, he said he thinks this is biased and inaccurate.

“When we throw in the fact that it’s social housing that is identified as the problem I think that’s frankly discriminatory and I don’t think it’s accurate to be able to say that supportive housing is the cause of the problem,” he said. “We know, we operate these.”

Hughes would like to see people who have lived experience working on the front lines providing care in the community.

“We know in places like Portland, that they now have teams going out that are like a Car-40 but involve people who have lived experience that can engage people that are out on the street,” Hughes said, noting he thinks more police is not the answer.

“If we’re looking at turning it into a police state at a time when the RCMP say that policing our way out of this isn’t the way, I’ll be concerned with that approach for sure.”

Those changes were among more than half a dozen directions given from council to staff during yesterday’s special council meeting.