Kelowna issues bylaw warning to deter unhoused campers from church lot

A Unitarian Church in Kelowna received a bylaw warning from the city in June because unhoused people were camping overnight in the church lot. 

Marilyn Raymond, the president of the church, says that volunteers who kindly move people along from the site are burning out, and the church faces up to $500 a day in fines if the camping persists. 

She says once the site started being used as a campsite, they asked the city how to deter overnight traffic.

Kelowna told the church to remove the tables and benches outside, which they called an attractant. Raymond says the church did that, regrettably, because it turned into a tent site. 

She says the church placed rocks where the tables and benches used to be to make it harder for people to camp overnight at the site, and staff and volunteers check on the site twice a day to deter people in a kind manner. 

Church says it's 'entirely unfair' it's been left on its own

Nick Bonnet, Kelowna's bylaw services supervisor, said in an email to CBC News that complaints about the overnight camping were coming in during May, but have since subsided. 

"The Unitarian Church stayed in close contact with the Bylaw Services team as progress was made and no [Bylaw Offence Notice] was issued as the church was able to rectify the situation," he said. 

"Since that time, no additional complaints have been received by our team."

Raymond said to rectify the situation, the church increased staffing hours to have someone supervising the site with lived experience of being unhoused, on top of utilizing volunteers.

The warning letter from Kelowna addressed to the church says that overnight shelter options, with beds open, are available in the city.

Timothy Anderson, who says he relocated to Kelowna in 2021 after a wildfire took everything he had in Okanagan Falls, is unhoused. 

He frequents the church and says that it's not easy living outdoors, "but it's a lot easier than being in the shelter where you don't have rights." 

Anderson says that different personality types who don't always get along, and the documentation guests need to sign in order to stay in the shelter, are two things that deter people from it. 

Raymond says that church volunteers who "kindly move the people along" are burning out. She says the church can't afford 24/7 security and that the problem is too big for the church to handle. 

"The city has said this is ours to fix, and we tried to respond that this is not Unitarian's problem. This is not something that we created, that we are responsible for," she said. 

"It's entirely unfair that we are left on our own to respond to this situation."