OLDS — Complaints about homelessness panhandling and busking have decreased in recent months, and the town’s bylaw focusing on those issues is cited as a likely factor.
Olds RCMP commanding officer Warren Wright and Justin Andrew, the Town of Olds' protective services director, both made those points when they presented their quarterly reports to town council on Aug. 26.
Andrew told council that complaints about homelessness panhandling and busking “spiked” in the spring.
Council passed a bylaw regarding those activities in early April.
“When the bylaws changed to give the RCMP and municipal enforcement tools to manage it, it has decreased,” Andrew said.
“I would like to say that some of our prolific offenders that were causing a big amount would have moved on, which is great.
“But there are still transient cases that come through from time to time that do require getting on very quickly.”
Wright also said that activity seems to have subsided, at least partly as a result of enforcement.
“In a non-criminal sense, we were able to use the tools that municipal legislation had provided to us at a lower level, a more appropriate level,” Wright said.
