The mayor’s new Homelessness Task Force has held two meetings, and the members are working together to brainstorm possible solutions.
CAO Jocelyn Whaley says the meetings have been encouraging.
“[The members] are really good at participating,” she says. “This is really cool for community involvement.”
Along with representatives from the major support services, Brazeau County Reeve Bart Guyon has been appointed to the task-force, and there are five members-at-large from Drayton Valley as well.
“It’s a very large group, which is nice, because it has all of the different sectors in it,” she says.
Whaley says one of the most important factors of the task force is education. She says they first want members to understand that some of the solutions that have been suggested are illegal or not financially feasible.
“We’ve also had a presentation from a subject matter expert, Dr. Laura Murphy, a former resident,” says Whaley.
The task-force has also provided an opportunity for all the service providers to explain what is currently being done about the situation. Whaley says the Town has been making efforts to address the issue, but some of those efforts aren’t widely known.
“I think everyone’s getting a feel of what we do, without shouting from the rooftops,” says Whaley.
This isn’t the Town’s first time bringing people together to find a solution for the issue. There was a Homelessness and Poverty Reduction team that was working toward the same goal, but that organization is no longer in operation.
She says the taskforce is currently putting together some points that can be sent out to the community. These points include what the taskforce will be doing, what the Town has been doing to address the homelessness issue, and which solutions are not feasible and/or legal.
The next meeting for the task-force is scheduled for the end of September, and Whaley says they hope to have an interim report to council by mid-October.
