It was a regular sight at Recreation Park, behind the Kelowna Curling Club, as the city’s homeless began their daily routine of packing up their camps on Thursday morning. “Much as it has been in the past few months, as long as we don’t not have enough beds and shelter space for the need, the city has a legal obligation to provide a space for shelters overnight,” said Darren Caul, City of Kelowna’s director of community safety.
The park is still being used as a temporary overnight shelter site amid the coronavirus pandemic — in fact, city staff say they’ve noticed an increase in the amount of people sleeping outdoors since the beginning of the pandemic. “We see many more people having to shelter outdoors in our community because our local