There was a Green tinge to the usual wake-up coffee, cigarettes and doughnuts handed out to Victoria’s homeless early Friday morning.
The goodies, distributed daily by Rev. Al Tysick’s Dandelion Society, were given out by Green Party of B.C. leader Jane Sterk and deputy leader Adriane Carr.
Earlier this week, Tysick issued a challenge to party leaders to join him on his daily 5 a.m. rounds, when he checks how the approximately 80 people living outside have fared overnight.
NDP leader Adrian Dix and Premier Christy Clark have not yet responded. But Victoria-Beacon Hill NDP candidate Carole James, who has previously gone out on Tysick’s early-morning walkabout, plans to do it again once the election campaign is over, and she’d like to see all newly elected MLAs follow suit.
Sterk said she was shocked to see how many people were sleeping in doorways or gathering in areas such as the steps of downtown churches.
“By the time most of us are up and about, these people are no longer visible,” she said.
“I think the numbers are shocking. I know the [Greater Victoria] Coalition to End Homelessness has been successful in getting housing for some people, but Rev. Al was talking about how a completely different approach is needed for those who are so street-entrenched and so difficult to house.”
Other Green candidates will go out with Tysick during the next week, and Sterk hopes those running for other parties will do the same.
“Too often, politics is really separated from some of the eye-opening problems we have in our society,” she said.
Tysick said everyone who sees the problems firsthand finds the experience moving and he hopes more politicians will come out with him.
“Those who are advocates for poverty have to keep on banging on that anvil,” he said.
“But the answers are difficult and expensive.”
An ultra-low-barrier shelter, where street-entrenched people — who often have addiction or mental-health problems — can stay safe, may be one part of the solution, Tysick said.
“We’ve also got to try and move people into homes with a different sort of model and staffing, where the people in the house have responsibility and power.”
