Victoria mayor calls for support to fill gaps in services and housing in the CRD

In the face of an ongoing and converging opioid, housing and mental health crises in the city, Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto is asking for help, from other municipalities, from the province, and from the federal government.

“We can work to resolve these symptoms as long as we can, but it is unsustainable for us to do this in a meaningful way for a very long time,” said Alto. “We're very hopeful that soon we'll be able to see even more progress in the provincial provision of additional complex healthcare, emergency services and housing.”

The mayor seems to have reached a crucible moment in her mayoralty with respect to the ongoing crises and how and when she plans to resolve them.

“The time is now,” she said, when asked about the timing of her support of VicPD Chief’s Del Manak’s three-stage Pandora and Ellice public “safety plan” to permanently remove the Pandora Street encampment and the need for her office to seek short and longer-term solutions to the multiple challenges currently facing the city with other municipal, provincial, and federal partners.

The inflection point of Manak’s safety plan announcement and Alto’s media event was the unprovoked attack on a paramedic by an unhoused person suffering from the effects of a brain injury on July 12 on the 900-block of Pandora.

In response to that attack, VicPD boosted special duty foot patrols in the area. The plan’s second stage, set to roll out in coming weeks, involves police working with the city’s bylaw officers and public works employees to remove “problematic structures,” including permanent structures along Pandora. The third involves the complete removal of the encampment and comes with no hard timeline.

“Our goal is to maintain public safety by taking action to address criminality and street disorder, to find, target, and prevent the entrenchment of criminals who are exploiting vulnerable persons in those areas, and to work with and support community partners and service providers in ongoing efforts to create long-term housing solutions,” said Manak

“I understand the chief's desire to have a firm goal, and I support that in principle,” said Alto.

The real and the practical implications of that goal, by way of housing all of the people impacted by the chief’s ambitions are less clear.

“Ultimately, the answer is provincial,” she said

Alto said she’s hopeful that the city will soon have more provincial support to address emergency, housing, and complex healthcare needs.

Providing social services and supportive housing in the region has been a burden Victoria has carried largely alone.

“The City of Victoria houses 87% of all the supportive housing. We do not have 87% of people who need supportive housing,” Alto said. “I urge my colleagues and other municipalities to look inside their own communities and understand that we are housing their people and their people would like to go home.”

Five of BC Housing’s six modular supportive housing projects, totalling 221 units announced in 2021, reached occupancy in 2023/24. Three of these projects were in Victoria (Yates, Meares and Catherine, Balmoral), one in Saanich and one in Central Saanich. In Sooke, 75 units of low income housing were completed in 2023 and prioritized access to Indigenous people.

“My authority, my interest and my responsibility is to deal with this issue in Victoria, but we cannot do this if we do not get help from our municipal partners,” said Alto.

In response to Alto’s call for collaboration, Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock said “As municipalities in the Capital Region, we are all in this together and we share responsibility for housing and delivering support services with our health partners.”

He said he looks forward to working with Victoria on an “integrated and sustainable regional approach” to addressing housing and support issues.

The province is building hundreds of units, but many of them are still years out from completion. Meanwhile, said Alto, “we need to create additional shelter spaces immediately.”

“There are shelter spaces that are potentially available now,” she said. “What they're waiting for is confirmation and funding.”

When asked how many shelter spaces were currently available, Alto declined to answer.

With respect to the dire need for additional health services in the region, she pressed Island Health for more in the crisis.

"I think for Island Health in particular, we would be hoping that they would first have a look at some specifics around, for example, how they release people who don't have homes into situations which are available, like parks,” she said. “It would be great for Island Health to be able to look more critically at how they deal with the release of clients in  crisis and how quickly, how long they can keep them and help them."

Island Health told Capital Daily in response to Alto’s comments “The situation on Pandora Avenue is challenging for the people living there, the service providers working to meet the social and care needs, the first responders who help save lives every day, and the health-care staff seeking to connect people with ongoing services and supports that lead to improved health and wellness. We are committed to continuing to work with the city, police, bylaw, first responders, service partners and the public to seek long term, permanent solutions.”

Alto says she knows there are legislative limits to what Island Health can do within current legislation and there are also options she’s willing to explore.

"There are elements currently in place under the Mental Health Act which do allow there to be interventions made for people who are likely in a situation where they harm themselves, which are not used very often,” she said. “The question is whether there is anything that needs to be done with that, or something new, which might provide an ability to have a comprehensive but also a fair system."

Despite the urgency of her call, Alto also says she knows she’s playing a long game. She seems aware there are no quick fixes here, even with a little help from her friends.