Our Safety, Shared Responsibility

The real question is whether Cranbrook’s public spaces are safe and feel safe, and whether our responses are actually changing outcomes rather than relocating problems.

People are concerned.

• Parents worry about homelessness and drug activity concentrating near our high school..
• Businesses around the former Travelodge lived with years of disorder and property crime. People worry this is being relocated.
• Common Ground, beside Moir Park, was set up without running water or power.
• Downtown businesses and residents are seeing more visible drug use, severe intoxication and disorder.

These concerns deserve to be taken seriously.

So does the person sleeping outside, fighting addiction or mental illness, or simply struggling to survive.

We don’t have to choose between compassion and community safety. We need both. And we can’t just move the problem.

HEAD: Follow the problem, not just the address.

Cranbrook has invested in shelter, supportive housing, outreach, Bylaw and coordinated policing. Local partners - the Ktunaxa Nation, Community Connections, ANKORS, Fresh Start, Interior Health and others - are doing hard, daily work. That work matters.

But as the Travelodge shelter wound down, City staff documented people moving toward downtown for food, warmth and services, what they called “compelled migration.” Step Beyond’s 40 beds can work inside the building while disorder still rises around it. Common Ground still lacks basic services on site, so people leave, and the problem travels with them.

A roof matters. Without services, supervision, treatment and reasonable expectations, we risk moving the visible problem from one neighbourhood to another.

When a problem disappears from one location, is it solved?

• If people leave Common Ground for water, warmth and services, where do they go, and what happens there?
• If a shelter works inside its doors but disorder rises around it, is that success?
• If we enforce a bylaw and move someone from a park, what happens next?
• When a small number of high-needs people keep drawing police, Bylaw, Fire and ambulance, are we solving the problem, or paying over and over to manage it?

Council needs to connect those dots and measure the outcomes. Success isn’t where the problem isn’t anymore. It’s whether the problem is actually getting better.

The Cozy Bear Lodge (supportive homes, mainly for older adults) is an example of better matching: the right housing, with supports, for the people who need it.

HANDS: Make the pieces work together.

Cranbrook already has RCMP, Bylaw, outreach, the Safe Community Situation Table, Common Ground, shelters, supportive housing, community partners and provincial programs. Now make them work together.

• Target known hotspots - Match enforcement and outreach to the places and hours when problems actually occur.
• Protect public spaces - Consistently enforce reasonable standards of behaviour around playgrounds, schools, parks, downtown and problem neighbourhoods.
• Bring services to people - If Common Ground remains our designated sheltering area, water and basic services need to reach people there.
• Protect surrounding neighbourhoods - New shelters and supportive housing should come with neighbourhood impact plans, after-hours response and transparent reporting.
• Demand our share from Victoria - Mental-health care, addiction treatment and much of supportive housing are provincial responsibilities. Document the costs downloaded onto Cranbrook and pursue the resources to match them.
• Make every incident count - Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents who experienced crime didn’t report it. Unreported crime doesn’t identify hotspots, and we need that reporting for more resources. Make non-emergent crime reporting easier.
• Implement a measurable Safety Scorecard - where we publicly report whether its working.

HEART: Safe for everyone.

We love Cranbrook. It’s not a slogan. It is whether we can use a park safely and walk downtown confidently..

A child shouldn’t find a needle in a park. A business shouldn’t repeatedly absorb the cost of vandalism. A teenager walking home from work shouldn’t feel unsafe. A senior shouldn’t stop using a public space because they feel intimidated. And the person so unwell they can barely function in public, matters too. Leaving that person there isn’t compassion. Neither is allowing a small number of people to make shared spaces unusable for everyone else.

Compassion and accountability aren’t opposites. Help people who need help. Expect reasonable behaviour. Protect our shared spaces.

Bottom line: Don’t move the problem. Change the outcome.