Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps will write to the Capital Regional District and local municipalities asking them to amend their bylaws to permit homeless people to overnight in parks.
Council endorsed the suggestion from Coun. Geoff Young, who said Victoria appears to be the lone municipality in the region to reference camping in its parks bylaw.
Young said core municipalities such as Victoria and Vancouver are “political orphans.”
“Other levels of government are content for us to accept these social burdens and allow them to be ignored by others,” he said.
Council has directed staff to conduct a legal review of the city’s parks bylaw in light of a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision regarding homeless people camping in Abbotsford parks.
In finding last month that Abbotsford’s bylaws prohibiting camping in parks are unconstitutional, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson ruled that homeless people can erect shelters in public spaces and parks from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m.
Victoria’s parks bylaw allows camping from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. when daylight time is in effect.
Young said despite wakeups conducted by city bylaw officers and police, it is often 11 a.m. or noon before homeless camps are moved from parks.
“Our bylaw says 7 [a.m.] and the judge has said 9 [a.m.]. What have the other municipalities done to adjust their bylaws?”
But it appears any change in other municipalities could be met with resistance.
“Yeah, we’re not going to do that,” said Langford Mayor Stew Young, adding that most complaints he receives are about people camping in green spaces that are not necessarily formal parks.
He said Langford doesn’t have the staff to police such a bylaw.
Saanich Mayor Richard Atwell said in an email that such a proposal would likely be met with significant resistance and spark “vigorous debate” among residents and the 18 community associations as to which parks would be suitable.
Atwell said Saanich is dealing with a number of permanent camps set up “off trail” in Cuthbert Holmes Park, near Tillicum Centre — a situation that is being monitored by Saanich police and the Saanich parks department.
In Esquimalt, Mayor Barb Desjardins worried that changes to the hours camping is allowed in Victoria parks could affect her municipality, given that the two share a police force.
“I have a concern because we have a joint police force. How is this going to affect our police resource?” she said. “So when they send the letter, we’ll certainly have some discussion on how to respond to it.”
In their discussion, Victoria councillors agreed with Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe that the staff review should also consider the rights of other park users.
She noted the Abbotsford decision, in part, found “a sustained occupation of a single location by a homeless encampment creates conditions that are unsafe to the homeless persons, municipal staff and residents.”
Thornton-Joe said council has to find a balance between all park users — including “families who live nearby and children who want to use the parks and the people who want to feel safe as they cut through the parks.”
Coun. Ben Isitt disagreed. He said the review should focus specifically on the rights of those seeking shelter in parks.
“I don’t believe the courts have actually found that there’s a right of a resident to use a park,” Isitt said. “I think access to green space is essential and I think municipalities do balance those rights.”
