Plan to end sheltering in all Victoria Parks set in motion

On Thursday, Victoria’s committee of the whole voted 7-2 to relocate all unhoused people currently sheltering in Vic West and Irving Parks by Aug. 1 and for staff to report back with at least three indoor or outdoor shelter options, excluding parks, by June 15.

In the face of a national homelessness and housing crisis, cities across Canada have seen a recent rise in homeless encampments. Historically, federal and provincial governments have left the challenge of encampments to municipalities that see themselves forced to mitigate the issue through bylaw implementation and policing.

“We've got to do something. No more tents. Tents don't work for anybody,” Coun. Jeremy Caradonna told Capital Daily. “It’s time to move beyond the Covid crisis when overnight sheltering bylaws were temporarily set aside.”

So, here's the motion, and there's some history

Finding housing solutions for the vulnerable and struggling is a complex task with many moving parts. Caradonna and fellow councillor Krista Loughton are banking on having the pressure of a deadline to make it happen, even if the fix is neither perfect nor permanent.

On Thursday, they tabled a motion directing staff “to facilitate the relocation of those sheltering in parks. Item 3 of the motion calls city staff  “to identify at least three indoor or outdoor locations, excluding parks, where sheltering could be permitted, and report back to Council before June 15.”

“This approach,” states the motion, “would build on the successful efforts at Topaz Park and Stadacona Park, in which unhoused people were successfully transitioned into housing or indoor sheltering as a precondition for prohibiting sheltering in those parks.”

After considerable procedural and semantic wrangling with its wording, the council passed the motion by a vote of 7-2.

“It took us decades to get into the problem and we need time to get out of it,” said Coun. Chris Coleman.” We are trying to signal that we no longer see parks as a legitimate opportunity for tenting and we still want to be compassionate—this isn’t a silver bullet,” he said.

The crisis of Victoria’s unhoused is not new. A 2007 mayor’s task force report on breaking the cycle of mental illness concluded that at least 1,200 people were homeless in or near downtown Victoria and another 300 were living in extremely unstable housing situations.

What the report got wrong was its projection that “without the addition of sufficient supported housing units, the homeless population in Victoria is expected to increase by 20-30 percent per annum, or by an additional 300–450 people per year.”

A 2023 CRD 2023 Point in Time Survey identified 1,665 people in the Greater Victoria area without a home and experiencing a variety of circumstances.

The province and city strike a deal

On Feb. 24, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the city and the province on homelessness response came into effect. It outlines Homeless Encampment Action Response Teams (HEART) Homeless Encampment Action Response & Temporary Housing (HEARTH) to “assist people in encampments or sheltering to come inside and access temporary or permanent housing options that fit their needs.”

The role of the province is broadly a supportive one. The municipality, on the other hand, is being called on to provide access to health services; sanitation services, including washrooms and shower facilities; food and drinking water; cultural and social support services to unhoused people and to “proactively apply its bylaws to prevent entrenchment of encampments and ensure the safety and well-being of both housed and unhoused residents.”

Under the MOU, BC Housing, in coordination with Our Place Society, will reopen the 30-unit Caledonia Place (former Tiny Town) at 940 Caledonia in the parking lot next to Royal Athletic Park, with funding the HEARTH program. The initiative opens 30 temporary shelter spaces – the 30 extreme weather spaces at St. John the Divine were closed as of March 31.

With those numbers and the MOU in mind, the city has been gradually reducing the number of parks in which sheltering remains permissible. As of yesterday, sheltering was still allowed in Oaklands, Gonzales, Pemberton, Irving, and Vic West parks. While the motion will apply immediately to Vic West and Irving, ultimately, the city would like to see no sheltering in any Victoria park.

The motion’s August 1 deadline is arbitrary and relies, to be successful, on accurate and feasible availability of shelter or housing spaces.

Caradonna insists he and Loughton will find them.

The million-dollar question is where? And what if people don’t want to go there?

Well, then there's legal precedent

In 2008, the BC Supreme Court ruled against the city in favour of a group of unhoused people who argued that forcibly evicting them was unconstitutional.

The judge presiding over Adam v. Victoria concluded that the prohibition on taking a temporary abode was “both arbitrary and overbroad and hence not consistent with the principles of fundamental justice," referring to Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Those principles are no more important than when applied to the most vulnerable people in the city.

Item 3 of the motion leaves it up to city staff to identify at least three appropriate locations where people can be offered shelter, whether that be outdoors or indoors, as long as it isn’t a park.

“The reason that those parks [Stadacona and Topaz] don't have unsheltered people in them anymore is that relocation coordinators led by Pacifica were able to get them into housing or shelter. The most updated numbers are that over a dozen people were housed. If this motion passes on Thursday, her team is going to kick into action again,” said Caradonna.

When asked when Stadacona and Topaz parks were closed whether people migrated to other parks, bylaw officer Adam Scheffield said “I can’t say we could specify there was more numbers in other parks.”

Niki Ottosen, the founder of the Backpack Project which provides many unhoused people with everyday items needed to withstand a night on the streets, wonders whether the city is counting in the right places.

“People pushed out of parks will end up on sidewalks, as happened when Topaz emptied onto Blanshard.” She believes people will migrate from Irving and Vic West into downtown. “In my eyes, it's gonna backfire. What they're saying is that they want Pandora to be an encampment.”

“Moving from a park to an emergency shelter is the bottom rung of the housing continuum,” said Caradonna. We’d like to see people in actual housing.”

Has to be the right, safe fit

Finding the right locations for individuals with varying needs and challenges—sober, women, Indigenous people, elderly, alcohol or drug users—poses a significant hurdle to the relocation plan. Shelters are not always safe for people, particularly for women and Indigenous people.

Relocation assessments require time and resources. Coordinators working with Pacifica Housing Association do extensive interviews so they know what's going on and where the most appropriate housing option might be for each person. “It's in-depth, one-on-one work but it's well worth it because what we want is for people to be housed and to stay housed,” said Caradonna.

Coun. Stephen Hammond expressed concern about maintaining safety for everyone once those locations were chosen.

“We have no security for this,” he said. “If this comes about, what other parks and what other neighbourhoods are going to be disrupted by the negative behaviours that follow?”

Loughton says under the current status quo, there already is no security.

One way to mitigate security concerns is by putting in place, in advance, the kinds of wrap-around supports that people need to feel physically and emotionally regulated—from food to medical attention, substance management, to counseling. It’s a big investment in an unpredictable future. But it’s one well worth making for everyone.

The two biggest resources both the city and the not-for-profits working to provide these supports are time and money.

Just before the vote count, Coleman reminded colleagues of the success of the 2016 move of people into the My Place Transitional Housing. “Understandably parents were worried about Central Middle School and the students there. And it worked!”

“It’s hard to see the success when all you can see is the difficulty that folks on the street are facing,” said Coun. Susan Kim.