An open letter to Castanet

Castanet’s August 20 story about the cleanup near Mill Creek reports on legitimate concerns: fire hazards, accumulated debris and public safety.

Those things matter, and dangerous conditions should be addressed.

But there is another part of this story that deserves reporting:

What happened to the people who were living there?

Removing garbage is necessary. Addressing an immediate fire hazard is necessary. But removing an encampment does not remove homelessness.

If people have nowhere appropriate to go, clearing one location can simply move the same problem somewhere else. The tents move. Another neighbourhood becomes frustrated. Bylaw officers, police, outreach workers and City crews respond again.

That isn’t necessarily a solution. It can become a cycle.

When an encampment is cleared, we should be asking:

• How many people were displaced?
• What shelter or housing alternatives were actually available that day?
• Were those alternatives accessible and appropriate for the people involved?
• Were outreach workers able to connect people with services?
• Where did people go afterward?

Those questions aren’t an argument for accepting unsafe encampments.

They’re how we determine whether we’re actually solving a problem.

Kelowna should be capable of doing two things at once: protecting neighbourhoods and public spaces while recognizing that people sleeping outside still need somewhere safe and lawful to exist.

Cleaning up dangerous conditions may solve an immediate problem at one location. The harder measure of success is what happens the next day, the next week and the next month.

Did someone get housed?

Did someone get into shelter?

Did someone connect with services?

Or did the encampment simply reappear somewhere else?

Public safety matters.

So does what happens next.

Randy Millis
Kelowna, British Columbia

This open letter responds to Castanet’s August 20, 2026 reporting, “City of Kelowna moves in to remove hazards associated with encampments near Mill Creek.”

Tags: #Kelowna #KelownaBC #KelownaCouncil #Okanagan #Homelessness #HousingCrisis #BCHousing #BCPoli #PublicSafety #Housing #HumanStories #PersonalDispatchesCA