More than 40 people showed at a second meeting to discuss made-in-Cowichan solutions to aggressive panhandling in the downtown core.

The meeting — which included politicians, several police officers, downtown business owners and representatives of the Cowichan branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association — produced plenty of food for thought, but no concrete plan emerged during the more than two-hour confab held at the Phoenix Motor Inn early Wednesday.

The latest meeting comes on the heels of the first, which was held early last month, where members of the business community and others expressed concerns about aggressive panhandlers and other members of the homeless population who are driving customers away.

One woman said Wednesday her two young children had been harassed and spat upon by members of the homeless community.

One storeowner said he wasn’t unsympathetic to the plight of the homeless, but he had a business to run and having people flopped out in front of his store or nearby did nothing to draw customers.

“If you have a customer who has a good experience, they might come back,” he said.

“If they have a negative experience, they won’t and will tell ten friends about it.”

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Another man, who lives beside the Seventh Day Adventist church that doubles as an overnight shelter, said he took the opportunity to speak to a couple of homeless men.

“They told me the city of Nanaimo gave them tickets to go to Duncan because they have a homeless shelter there.”

Not quite yet — the Warmland House is expected to open its doors Dec. 16 and may ease the problems experienced by downtown merchants.

But, warned Anne Balding of the CMHA, changes won’t happen overnight.

“I don’t think we can expect people to come out of addiction and mental health issues without support,” she said.

Balding also told the assembled the number of homeless people has multiplied over the past few years.

“The homeless count is going up,” she said.

“We have about 135 as opposed to (37) a couple of years ago.”

But Duncan’s mayor was quick to point out most of the homeless aren’t strangers.

“The vast majority of people are from here — they are our residents,” said Phil Kent.

Balding said she’d heard rumours of other cities attempting to rid their streets of homeless people by sending them to the Duncan area, but there is no evidence to back the gossip.

“There are people who come here from Nanaimo and Victoria because it’s true, we do treat our homeless better,” she said.

“But they move on quickly because there is nothing for them to do here.”

More meetings to discuss the issue are in the works, but no dates have been set.

“We’ll be developing a working group to deal with some of the issues that came up,” said Kent, outside the meeting.

“It will be done likely under the Community Safety Advisory Committee or the regional district because we already have a number of organizations there.”