A city in northern Alberta says it is clamping down on aggressive panhandlers and encampments.
The City of Cold Lake, home to about 16,000 residents, said in a news release earlier this month that it will continue to take steps to ensure that “vagrancy and anti-social behaviour do not pose a public safety risk in the city.”
The city says it has worked closely with the Cold Lake John Howard Society to ensure that people who do not have a place to stay can find shelter and access to support for addictions and mental health issues. However, threats of violence and an increase in aggressive behaviour amongst those accessing the shelter have led the outreach staff to shut down operations several times.
“It’s concerning to hear that the potential for violence has led professional social workers to pause their operations,” Mayor Craig Copeland said in the news release.
“It is important to help those in our community who are in a vulnerable position, who have become unhoused, or who are suffering through addictions or mental health issues. It is equally as important to protect the people who are dedicated to helping them, the investment business people have made in our community, and the public at large.”
The city added that its municipal enforcement department has been working with the RCMP to ensure that vagrancy, aggressive panhandling, illegal camps, warming fires, and other antisocial and dangerous acts are being charged or ticketed appropriately.
Focus is especially being placed on locations where individuals are found to consistently and habitually engage in such behaviour, with an enforcement initiative underway in Cold Lake in targeted areas.
Many of the individuals who have been found to repeatedly threaten violence and create illegal encampments with dangerous warming fires have been in and out of the court system with little to no consequences for their actions, the city stated.
If the fines do not curb the danger to the public, and the behaviour continues to a point where the fines have accumulated, the city will turn to having those individuals face jail time in penitentiaries under provisions that levy penalties for unpaid fines.
“The residents of Cold Lake have gone to a great extent and significant expense to provide shelter and support for vulnerable people,” Copeland said. “At the same time, we need to ensure that the residents of Cold Lake and their businesses are not victimized as a result. Our police and peace officers have done their part, but the courts all too often fail to provide meaningful justice. We will take all steps available to us to keep our community safe.”
The City of Cold Lake added it has noticed that there are “several new habitual offenders in town” and that the brazenness and severity of the vagrancy has significantly intensified over the past several weeks.
Based on information supplied by outreach workers, the homeless count has jumped from 156 to 195 over the past month.
Cold Lake City Council has asked the administration to monitor the judicial system’s progress regarding the City’s enforcement measures with the joint RCMP and Municipal Enforcement effort.