Time limits won’t be imposed on how long a person can stay in a city park.
Victoria councillors Thursday rejected staff recommendations to amend the parks bylaw. The suggested amendments would have restricted people to remaining in one area of a park for a maximum of six hours and those sheltering in parks would be required to move at least 100 metres after a 12-hour sheltering period.
While city staff put forward the proposal in the hope of giving relief to park ecosystems stressed by tents, several councillors were clearly more worried about the potential impact the bylaw change would have on people sheltering in parks.
“If I thought there was a crisis in our parks system in terms of people sheltering and the impacts were becoming completely unbearable for the wider community, [then] there may some remedial action needed [in the parks] as we build transitional housing,” Coun. Ben Isitt said.
He said he’s not hearing public outrage “or even substantial public concern” on the issue.
“We are trying to fix a parks use issue when the real issue is homelessness and getting housing,” Coun. Chris Coleman said.
But Coun. Pam Madoff said she is hearing from the wider community, who have told her that they are frustrated that their use of parks is being limited by people tenting. The suggestion that some moderate steps not be taken because the problem will disappear with housing and more shelters is not realistic, she said.
“I have to say, in my heart of hearts, seeing the direction Victoria is going in, I don’t believe we will ever get to the point where we will eradicate homelessness,” Madoff said.
“We’re the third most expensive city in the country, and that’s only going to get worse. We’ll never be able to create a supply that will be equal to the demand.”
Coun. Geoff Young said imposing the time limit would be “totally reasonable” and no different from the city giving a sports group exclusive use of a section of park for a limited time.
“If parks are going to be meaningfully used as public space, there has to be some way to allow the public to use all parts of that park except in special circumstances,” Young said.
Mayor Lisa Helps said she doesn’t want to see tent cities established in parks, so it’s important that police and bylaw officers have the authority to dismantle tents on those rare occasions when the occupant won’t.
Helps said in an interview that since media reports of the proposed time limit last weekend, councillors have heard from a number of people saying the city should balance protection of park ecosystems “with the more pressing need of people to shelter.”
She said she isn’t worried the decision not to impose a time limit will lead to the creation of another tent city.
“We’re not going to have another tent city in Victoria,” Helps said. “We are working, pulling all the levers we can, to try to get some solutions in place for this winter so that we have people inside and not outside.”
While councillors rejected the idea of time limits, they did approve giving bylaw officers and police authority to impound property unlawfully left in a park. However, they waived a proposed $25 fee for reclaiming seized property.
They approved giving staff authority to temporarily close a park or part of a park for public safety or maintenance and a prohibition on interference with city workers conducting park clean up, maintenance or other work.
Also introduced was the ability to apply for permits to carry out protests “and other expressive activities” in a park.
Council is to review their decisions in one year and receive quarterly updates on the bylaw’s implementation
The number of people tenting in parks has grown since a 2008 B.C. Supreme Court ruling that said in the absence of available shelter beds it is unconstitutional to deny someone the ability to erect shelter.
In the wake of the decision, city amended bylaws to permit people to shelter in most city parks between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.; tents and belongings are to be packed up by 7 a.m.
Police conduct patrols to wake tenters each morning. Compliance with the bylaw is generally good, city staff say, but there are occasional problems.
