There are still people living in tents at Fairview Road and Highway 97 in Penticton months after the city attempted to decamp and evict the people living there.

The City of Penticton, provincial government and Penticton Indian Band worked together to try to transition people living there to alternative locations.

The city served eviction notices and wanted everyone off the site by June 25, but there are still people living there.

“We recognize the concerns around the encampment at Fairview Road and Highway 97. While the number of people sheltering there has decreased, we know that the site continues to pose safety risks for both the people sheltering in the encampment and the surrounding community,” Penticton’s communications manager Anna Melnick said in an written statement.

Penticton Exposed is a YouTube channel that regularly posts drone footage of the encampment. The videos show that the number of tents in the camp doesn’t seem to have changed much, but it looks much cleaner following the joint effort in June. In the video from Sept. 16, there are roughly 18 to 20 tents visible in the camp, which is close to the number seen in the video posted to the channel on May 10.

Outreach workers from organizations like ASK Wellness and 100 More Homes are still working with people at the camp.

“Outreach workers continue to connect people sheltering outdoors to services and supports wherever possible. Crews continue clean-up efforts as people voluntarily leave the site,” Melnick wrote.

Penticton has sent a resolution to the Union of British Columbian Municipalities for its conference next week to discuss regionalizing supportive housing. The city’s resolution said that smaller and rural communities don’t have adequate resources to house people where they are already living.

“Council will be meeting with Minister Boyle next week during Union of BC Municipalities and are looking forward to those discussions as we work towards longer term solutions,” Melnick wrote. “We are actively working with snpink’tn (Penticton) Indian Band, the Province, and BC Housing to support efforts to close the encampment and help transition people indoors. Limited shelter and housing availability remains a challenge, but we’re working closely with partners to expand access.”

Penticton-Summerland MLA Amelia Boultbee butted heads with the city in June over its silence on the camp and its efforts to address the situation there prior to the decampment.

The city’s communications manager declined to answer any questions about why the city hadn’t followed through and completely cleared the encampment.