On-site support staff hired by the province to help tent city residents stay safe, get help and transition to housing made their first approach to the courthouse lawn campers on Thursday.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps credited the ministry responsible for housing for quickly stepping up to manage the provincial property at the city’s request, given the April 5 B.C. Supreme Court decision that allows the campers to stay where they are until at least September.
“For that, I’m very grateful and council is very grateful,” Helps said.
Having one or more service providers on the site — eventually 24-7 — is “a pretty serious investment” on the part of the province that will help campers into the housing and health-care facilities that they need, she said.
Helps met with Rich Coleman, the minister responsible for housing, and Attorney General Suzanne Anton this week and noted only eight days passed between the court decision and when they took action.
The first step is to bring some order to the site, so that it’s safe for people living there and for neighbours, she said. “And then second, to make sure that people get the help and the housing that they need so that tent city can be closed down.”
The non-profit Portland Hotel Society, Victoria police and fire officials, and the province are working together to help the campers, the mayor said.
“No one wants to go to court; it’s expensive and unpleasant. People want housing, and, if the province is stepping up to commit to that — and it sounds like they are — then I support that.”
The Portland Hotel Society has extensive experience working with street-entrenched people who have multiple mental-health and addiction issues and will work alongside housing providers already at the site, the province said.
Once fully operational, the Portland staffers will be on site 24-7 and assist campers in addressing concerns of the B.C. Fire Commissioner’s Office that were reported after a visit to the encampment on Feb. 27.
“They will increase their presence in the coming days, weeks and ultimately be on site 24-7 to provide advice and assistance,” said the ministry responsible for housing.
Both the province and city have concerns about open fires, flames and candles as well as ensuring a safe amount of space between tents, safe exits for residents and access for police and firefighters in an emergency.
Christine Brett, who tents at the courthouse lawn during weeknights and acts as “sacred fire keeper,” said that hiring the Portland workers indicates “disrespect” on the part of the province for campers.
They want to meet with provincial ministers or their representatives, not an intermediary organization, she said.
Several members of the Portland society have approached tenters, she said. She estimated there are still 120 people on site and nearly that many shelters and tents.
Helps said she’s been hearing different perspectives about what the society’s staff have to offer. “No one can go in and expect change in one day,” she said. “Some people will embrace that and others will resist that.”
Nearby homeowner Stephen Hammond, of the Mad As Hell Victoria neighbourhood group, said more needs to be done for taxpayers who have to contend with messes, shooting up and criminal activity.
“We are not impressed that they spend a tonne of money on the people of tent city, but no extra money for increased policing,” he said, noting that the Portland society was audited unfavourably in 2014 for how it handled provincial funding.
“The people in these neighbourhoods are in crisis and therefore we need a crises response,” he told Victoria council on Thursday night.
They want 24-hour police protection in tent city and surroundings, and for the city to uphold the law, such as parking fines for vehicles that park on Quadra Street beside the camp for nights on end without tickets, he said. “Yesterday morning a guy was shooting up across the street,” he said. “They realize they can.”
The city has had more than six years, since the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that Natalie Adams and other campers could sleep in city parks, “to do something concrete — to really pull up your sleeves to help our most vulnerable citizens to not be relegated to sleeping in parks,” Hammond said. “We are in the position we are in because of the neglect to take real action for our most vulnerable British Columbians.”
