Study into St. Paul Vagrancy hopes to bring forth Solutions

RCMP Staff Sergeant discovering actions steps to help reduce homelessness.

Staff Sergeant (S/Sgt) for the St. Paul RCMP Detachment, Lee Brachmann, spoke to Town Council on Monday evening regarding his studies at Royal Roads University in BC. The S/Sgt is enrolled in a Masters program and hopes to use the Town of St. Paul and its stakeholders to help complete his research study into the vagrancy problem in the town; with no cost to the Town to carry out the study.

“I’m looking at how the Town of St. Paul may enhance collaborative efforts from agencies in the health and human services sectors to address the issue of vagrancy,” Brachmann explains he wanted to find a subject that would help better St. Paul. “Through what I do [as a member of the RCMP] it has been brought up to me before and I know it is a priority for the Town and the RCMP.”

Preliminary discussions with stakeholders have revealed that there are many layers in solving the problem, says Brachmann, “I’ve heard from a number of stakeholders that there’s a number of underlying conditions that are present, when we’re looking at a social issue, such as vagrancy.” Brachmann believes that through his research study action steps can be discovered that will help, “by examining how we might build stronger relationships with [the health and human services] sectors, we might start developing recommendations and solutions about how we might begin to address this issue, holistically and in a long-term basis.”

The project would be outside of S/Sgt Brachmann’s regular RCMP duties, “for the last year and a half I’ve been doing a Master of Arts & Leadership program through Royal Roads University in Victoria. I’m now at the final stage, where I’m doing my research project.”

Brachmann asked for the Town’s support in doing the project and notified them that he may be interviewing a few of the Town’s employees. Town Council & Mayor, Glenn Andersen, unanimously gave Brachmann their support in the project. Brachmann anticipates the project to be completed by University’s December 2017 deadline or sooner.