A limited number of emergency mats put street-entrenched people in the eye of a storm

Yesterday, Victorians were bracing for a bomb cyclone—the fancy meteorological term for a rapidly intensifying storm—which isn’t so easily done for residents who have no home.

The term bomb cyclone is used by some weather outlets to describe the meteorological process of bombogenesis, a phenomenon marked by high winds and severe rainfall (or snow). It constitutes an extreme weather event that meets Environment Canada criteria that it uses to trigger municipalities to put into place their EWRs or emergency weather response protocols.

The Salvation Army was contracted, only last week, to provide a coordinating role in the city, for an emergency weather response. Coordinating the effort is difficult without the proper resources. On a day like yesterday, the resource most in demand was an emergency shelter spot or a mat for the most vulnerable.

Bylaw officers—about 15 of them–directed and helped City of Victoria staff load “garbage’” into the bins of two garbage trucks yesterday morning. It’s a regular, if not near daily occurrence on Pandora. Since the enforced decampment of its tent community and the appearance last month of blue interlocking fencing there, it’s been more difficult for people to erect any kind of shelter. The deterrent, preventative interventions make that impossible. Yesterday, though, the wind was already whipping discarded cups, wrappers, and the smoke from a BBQ positioned nearby to warm cold hands. Yesterday, people needed somewhere to go. Even if they didn’t know it yet.

“They [the city] should suspend all sweeps before and after an extreme weather event,” said Nikki Ottenson, founder of the Backpack Project which provides mutual and humanitarian aid to people who live without homes. Anything else, she said, is “just cruel.”

BC Housing’s EWR program funds temporary shelter spaces in municipalities during extreme weather for anyone who wants to come inside.

Those spaces are essentially a mat, a blanket, and a pillow on the floor at a designated shelter. In the CRD, most of those options are in Victoria and unfortunately, they are very limited. Our Place Society on Pandora, which is not linked to the EWR program, offers 20 temporary shelter mats to people each night, but that number does not expand, even under an extreme weather alert to mats. As the storm pushed in, there were 11 people on their waiting list for shelter.

Grant McKenzie, its director of communications, suggested the Victoria Native Friendship Centre (VNFC) would be “matting up” with additional emergency spaces. If you were to call late afternoon once the wind was already blustery, asking about mats or shelter you would have been directed to a number to call to register for one.

Mats are not the solution

“We need more shelter spaces and supportive housing,” McKenzie said. Many of the people still attached to Pandora have been offered shelter but have either refused it or do not wish to follow the rules once they’re there.

McKenzie shortlisted the reasons some people might reject a shelter offer. They include concern for personal safety, the fact they may be hoarders who don’t want to lose their possessions, or it may be because they may be “deep into their addiction” and  “disruptive to others when they want to top up at night.”

“The people on Pandora are the most broken of the broken,” McKenzie said. "Getting them into low-barrier or supportive housing or even an emergency shelter is always a challenge.”

Down the road on Johnson, staff at the Salvation Army were preparing for the incoming weather, Brenda Wadey, the housing and support services manager told Capital Daily.

“The people who come here are street-entrenched, but they’re looking for a warm, safe place to be when it’s cold, and tonight is going to be one of [those nights],” she said.

Staff will offer 30 mats—20 in one room and 10 in another—to those in need. They have new staff that will be training as they go into emergency mode, their first EWR activation of the year.

Women are particularly vulnerable on extreme weather nights like last night

Sandy Merriman House (Cool Aid) is the sole women-only shelter in the CRD but it is not connected to the EWR program and so doesn’t provide emergency mats. It’s in its mandate, in an emergency, to refer women to its downtown facility, which is already at capacity.

Not all women want to be apart from the men they move with on the streets.

When asked about the lack of overall temporary shelter spaces for women in the region, Wadey told Capital Daily, “What I can tell you is women who are not alone but are women coming in together with men as parents, or as a chosen family, they tend to sleep close to each [other]. Having a shelter for women that is specifically designed for women would be beneficial, but I also know that there are individuals who stay because they want to be able to be together. It’s safer for them.”

Victoria can't continue to be the shelter destination

Victoria Coun. Matt Dell made it clear yesterday over social media that he does not want to see a repeat of the past where agencies in other municipalities sent people in need of emergency shelter to Victoria.

“Sending unhoused people to Victoria is not an acceptable plan and our region is NOT prepared to keep people experiencing homelessness safe and warm during extreme weather,” he wrote on X.

On Nov. 7, emergency program coordinator Tanya Seal-Jones told the council, “The reason we know, from last season, people were coming from outside municipalities, is we were receiving them by taxi and paying the taxi bill when they arrived at the warming centre.”

The mayor agrees.

“The City of Victoria has again been placed in the position of taking on the lion's share of a response to any emergency weather incidents for the entire region," Marianne Alto said. “It’s frustrating.”

Sooke and Salt Spring Island are the only other CRD municipalities with an EWR program and emergency shelter space.

And there's not enough here

On Instagram, Coun. Krista Loughton promised the city would open emergency warming centres but only when shelters were full. Three of the shelters Capital Daily spoke to were full, so it should have been expected that those warming facilities would have opened up by early yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday’s Environment Canada Weather Alert for Victoria said that due to expected high winds of up to 90-100km/hr “damage to buildings, such as to roof shingles and windows, may occur. Loose objects may be tossed by the wind and cause injury or damage. High winds may result in power outages and fallen tree branches.”

Unhoused people who were unable to find temporary shelter last night, or one of a very limited number of mats in Victoria and more broadly, in the CRD will have had to contend with all of it.

‍

Correction: Capital Daily stated that three of the shelters our team spoke to indicated they were full for the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 19, and therefore the warming facilities were expected to have opened, as per the information in Coun. Loughton's Instagram post. However, over the course of the evening and overnight, those shelter spaces were not full, and therefore the warming centre was not opened.