Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter

Homelessness has been a topic of great discussion for Town of Peace River council and community in the last few years.

A significant number of people now call Peace River home, but not in the conventional way you may think. The town has had many issues with tent cities erecting at various sites.

Mayor Elaine Manzer says she’s unsure of why there has been an increase in homelessness, but the town and local organizations are doing whatever they can to help find solutions for the people in need.

“It is hard to say why there is a large influx of homeless people into Peace River, but we are a service and business centre for the region,” she explains.

“I would say the biggest impacts have been the stresses of having people wandering around without a seeming reason to be in the area at various times of the day,” she adds.

“It is likely not always the homeless that are causing increased vandalism and thefts, but these types of behaviours make anyone the area more watchful and increase feelings of insecurity.”

Specifically, Peace River’s downtown core has had an influx of vandalism, theft, and defacement to property. These issues have all perpetuated many discussions throughout the community of what can be done to reduce the damage being caused and to help people living in tent cities find appropriate accommodations.

“We want our community to be safe for our residents and businesses,” Manzer says.

“The vandalism, thefts, people being a nuisance, making encampments and the resulting disorder are issues that cause people to not feel safe and secure in some parts of town and cause more suspicion as to who is causing the disorder.”

Encampments have been one of the major concerns in the community. Often the tent cities will move, leaving behind significant damage and disorder.

“The encampments have been a cause for concern in terms of what is going on in the encampments and their effects on neighboring businesses and residents,” Manzer notes.

“Items found in the encampments would indicate illegal and dangerous activities are part of many of the encampments.”

A large impact to the community was legislation change that allowed correctional institutes to release parolees into the community without transportation home.

“We are a town of 6,600 people and the impact of adding 200 to 300 people being released from the Correctional Centre and other homeless who have migrated to Peace River is a significant amount compared to the total population,” Manzer explains.

“Not having a regular bus service to Northwestern Alberta also impacts those that might want to move elsewhere. At the same time, most homeless do not have the financial resources to pay to move elsewhere.”

Town council has had discussions with various provincial ministers and Peace River MLA Dan Williams.

“Our Mental Health Task Force has also involved Mental Health and other services (in the discussion),” says Manzer of steps the community is taking to try to help both the homeless and the people being released from the Correctional Centre.

“Sagitawa Friendship Centre also has some programs that try to help these individuals.”

Manzer urges community members to help advocate to their MLAs and Members of Parliament (MP) about the need for several issues.

“Advocate about the need for rural bus transportation services, changes to the ways people are released from the Correctional Centre, and for some changes to the federal bail system as well as the Correctional Centre being more of a remand centre than a time to be served correctional centre,” she says, noting that all of these issues have exacerbated many issues in the community.

“For some of the homeless, perhaps access to more transitional services would help them move from their current circumstances, if they would choose that assistance.”

Manzer says there are many programs in town that people can turn to if they are destitute. She says the Sagitawa Friendship Centre, Salvation Army and Alberta Works/Income Support in the Provincial Building are all great resources people can use.

“We have supported Sagitawa’s Mobile Outreach program to both help businesses with issues with people hanging around or doing damage with the hope that the program would be able to connect some to other resources,” Manzer says of steps being taken by council to help with some of the issues faced by the community.

“The Town hired APEX for a three-month pilot project to help with the immediate concerns and have requested increased RCMP presence,” she adds.

Manzer says council isn’t sure the APEX pilot program helped to reduce the number of tent cities, but it did help to identify the encampments and what was going on at the sites. She says the program also helped to remove some of the encampments.

“Encampments are still happening, just not always in the former locations,” Manzer says.

“The presence of APEX staff did help communications with some of the homeless and with some of the business issues that were happening.”

Council is currently reviewing the three-month pilot project results to see what can be done as next steps to both help people in dire situations and eradicate the issues in the community.

“The Town will also have a director of protective services starting in November to directly oversee bylaws, community peace offices and fire services and perhaps find different ways to deal with the homeless concerns as well as the safety and security concerns of residents and businesses,” Manzer says.

She hopes people will write to their political representatives to help advocate for increased resources for communities that are experiencing vast increases in homelessness and vandalism.