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Victoria mayor wants CRD to borrow $50 million to house homeless

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and at least two of her councillors want the Capital Regional District to borrow $50 million to build 367 supportive housing units for the chronically homeless — a move they believe would effectively end homelessness in Grea
Lisa Helps photo
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps: “We’ve heard very clearly that people want the [homelessness] problem solved, and in the absence of the federal government putting forward the $50 million which we anticipate is needed to build those 367 units, we think it’s time for residents of the region [to solve it], and residents of the region have told us loud and clear they think it’s time.”

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and at least two of her councillors want the Capital Regional District to borrow $50 million to build 367 supportive housing units for the chronically homeless — a move they believe would effectively end homelessness in Greater Victoria by 2018.

It would cost about $2.08 million a year to service the debt, which could be paid through an annual levy of about $11.18 per household in the CRD, the three say in a resolution to be debated by Victoria councillors on Thursday.

The initiative being put forward by Helps, along with councillors Ben Isitt and Jeremy Loveday, is a response to the message Helps received this summer when council proposed putting a temporary tent city in Topaz Park to address the issue of people tenting in city parks.

“People stood there and yelled at us at Topaz Park and said: ‘We need housing,’ ” Helps said.

“We’ve heard very clearly that people want the problem solved, and in the absence of the federal government putting forward the $50 million which we anticipate is needed to build those 367 units, we think it’s time for residents of the region [to solve it], and residents of the region have told us loud and clear they think it’s time.”

The Coalition to End Homelessness estimates 367 units are needed to end chronic homelessness in the region.

The resolution:

• Calls on Victoria council to go on record in support of a regional housing-first strategy and to ask for CRD board approval for the Capital Regional Hospital District to be the lead agency in getting the housing financed and built. (Housing-first programs aim to get people into housing as an essential first step in helping them overcome other problems.)

• Seeks council’s approval to approach the province for a $7.73-million annual commitment ($21,064 per unit) to go toward operating costs.

• Seeks council’s support for the mayor to write to the prime minister after the federal election asking for a federal commitment toward costs of building the new units.

Helps said having the hospital board as the lead agency to co-ordinate financing makes sense. The hospital district has housing within its purview and is entitled to borrow money for housing and hospitals. The Capital Region Housing Corp. is more focused on managing social-housing units, she said.

The province has to come on board with money to pay for the necessary support for the housing to work, Helps said. “As everybody knows, you can’t just stick people in houses and expect them to get better. That’s where the supports come in.”

Helps said the estimated cost of $11.18 per household should be within most people’s budgets — equating it to the cost of three lattes. Homelessness, she said, affects all 13 municipalities in the CRD. “There are people sleeping in parks in Langford. It’s not just a Victoria problem.”

CRD chairman Nils Jensen said the idea is “worthy of consideration.”

“What is important is to make sure the efforts are co-ordinated. It’s pretty critical that we don’t all run in different directions and thereby dilute the effectiveness,” said Jensen, who is also Oak Bay mayor.

“Leveraging through a regional fund has proven to be very successful — something that we couldn’t do here in Oak Bay or other small communities couldn’t do by themselves. So I think a co-ordinated regional approach is certainly something that’s preferred, in partnership with other groups.”

bcleverley@timescolonist.com