Kamloops taxpayers will be picking up the tab for a pair of social programs that were funded with a provincial grant that is no longer available.
City Council voted 8-0 to spend $682,000 to continue the Clean Team and the CSO outreach response programs in 2024 and beyond.
Social, Housing, and Community Development Manager Carmin Mazzotta says both those programs used to be funded by the UBCM’s Strengthening Communities’ Services Program grant.
“Through this program, the City was able to initiate or expand several social and community safety programs,” Mazzotta told council on Sept. 26.
“Council previously approved $450,000 in transitional funding through to end of year, and directed administration to bring forward a report identifying the impact of continuing these services beyond 2023.”
Mazzotta says the City received $1.469 million in 2021 and $1.509 million in 2022 from the grant program, which ended Aug. 31. That money was also used to cover the costs of the Envision Outreach Shuttle, to pay for security, and to cover the cost of 5.6 full-time equivalent CSO positions.
“The intent of the program was to assist local governments and treaty First Nations in improving health and safety of unsheltered individuals, reducing community safety concerns, improving coordination of services in the health and social sectors, and building community capacity to support culturally safe and trauma informed responses to homelessness,” Mazzotta said.
While agreeing to fund the programs for now, Councillors also voted to ask the provincial government to cover the costs instead, owing to concerns about downloaded costs onto taxpayers in Kamloops. The City will also reach out to the Federal Government informing them of the costs.
“I just believe that BC Housing should be participating more in the areas where they already recognized in 2020 they had a problem and I don’t think it should be downloaded on the citizens of the community,” Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson said at the Sept. 26 meeting.
The outreach program – which pairs outreach workers from social agencies with CSO officers – began in 2022. These teams connect marginalized people with services and supports 16 hours per day, seven days per week.
“The program allows the Community Services Division to adopt a community of care model approach in patrolling high needs areas and in responding to the increasing number of social-related calls for service,” Mazzotta wrote in a report to Council.
“This initiative helps build the outreach capacity of the broader Community Services Officer program and provides increased capacity to liaise with area businesses and residents to address community safety concerns. The team responds to calls, patrols high traffic areas, and follows up at previous response locations.”
The Clean Team, a group of recovering individuals tasked with cleaning up garbage and other things left over by those on the streets, will hit up the North Shore and Downtown commercial corridors on a rotating basis.
“The current iteration of the program involves the North Shore Business Improvement Association working in partnership with three social agencies (ASK Wellness, Canadian Mental Health Association, and The Mustard Seed) to provide broader supportive employment opportunities and an expanded reach of services,” Mazzotta said.
The outreach program will cost the city $422,000 annually, while the clean team will cost $260,000.
“The recommendations focus on the Community Services Officer Outreach Response Program and the Clean Team supportive employment program for 2024 and beyond,” Mazzotta said.
“Budget implications for additional Community Services Officer positions to help support the Community Services Officer Outreach Response Program will be brought forward through a separate business case.”
Councillor Bill Sarai recused himself from the vote as his son works for the city’s community services department.
