Ed Kendall, owner of Enlightened Hair and Tanning Salon, says he is moving locations after consistent issues he says arises from the next-door homeless shelter.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)

VERNON - A Vernon business owner is moving locations to escape escalating confrontations with patrons of a nearby homeless shelter.

Ed Kendall is the owner and manager of Enlighten Hair and Tanning Salon, currently at 2804 33 Street next to the Gateway Shelter. He says in a news release that he's moving his location to avoid "chronic problems with street people."

Kendall says in the release that the salon will relocate to Discovery Plaza at 3100 35 Street on Sept. 4, and claims the salon has suffered an increase in trouble over the years as the shelter's rules seem to have become "more lax" and the influx of "seasonal transients" increases.

"If picking up needles every morning were the only problem I had I could probably deal with it," Kendall says. "But I frequently have to chase people off my property, roust them in the morning from my doorway, and I've even had a knife pulled on me while trying to get into my business. And it's not only the shelter; there are new, more aggressive people in town all around here."

Kendall says he was originally planning to buy the building but the past few years of increasing issues changed his mind, and notes people hang out on sidewalks around his salon.

"It was getting to the point where we had to walk customers back to their cars," he says. "I feel for the landlord, who is going to have a hard time selling now."

Kendall says he doesn't want to move and that the salon has been there for 18 years, but he claims he's losing customers and he's had enough.

He adds he's frustrated that the City of Vernon and police don't seem to want to do anything about the problem.

"All I've heard the mayor say is that we have to get used to it because the city can't do anything about it. And our security company tells me the police sometimes don't even show up when they're called."

Kendall claims when the shelter was first established, he and other nearby business owners were assured it would run a tight ship, and were told no clients would be allowed to hang out within two blocks of the shelter outside of check-in and check-out times.

"And for the first few years everything was fine. But now it seems like there are no rules at all.  People are coming and going at all hours and no one is doing anything about it."

Kendall spoke to iNFOnews.ca earlier this year about his concerns surrounding the shelter, and detailed the attempted stabbing incident.

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