The city of Victoria wants us all to put on our thinking caps and try to find a solution to the problem of people sleeping in parks. The city will hold a workshop on Sept. 16, where Mayor Lisa Helps isn’t looking for grand plans, but for quick, practical action.
“I want to be really clear … we’re not talking at this workshop about long-term solutions to housing,” Helps said.
“We’re talking about what can we do so we don’t end up with this crisis in our parks next summer that we saw this summer and last summer.”
We have argued in these pages that the federal government needs to step up and help solve this nationwide problem, instead of leaving it to the level of government with the least resources. But as Helps suggests, the problem won’t wait for Ottawa to be lobbied or shamed into action.
The B.C. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that it was unconstitutional to deny a person the right to erect shelter in a city park if there were no shelter beds available. Since then, camping in city parks has become a persistent issue.
City staff estimate that about 130 people sleep in parks, which costs the city an estimated $600,000 a year for police, bylaw officers and cleanup. But the financial cost is only a fraction of the price the community pays.
The most serious price is paid by the homeless themselves, whose needs and reasons for camping vary widely.
While we can’t ignore the plight of the homeless, we also can’t ignore the fact that they are degrading parks and affecting the quality of life of neighbourhoods. People who live near the parks or want to use the parks complain about finding used needles and human excrement.
Neighbours like some of those invited to a weekend barbecue put on by the homeless in Kings Park find themselves torn between concern for the campers and resentment at being denied the use of a park that is an important part of their community.
The city tried to ease the pressure on Kings and other parks by proposing a designated camping area in Topaz Park, on Blanshard Street. That turned into a debacle when nearby residents turned out en masse to fight the plan.
The city is now committed to public consultation on any new options. Defining those options is the task at hand.
Since the call went out, hundreds of ideas have come in, including using closed schools or parking garages, asking residents to take in a homeless person or building insulated, bicycle-pulled trailers.
It is likely that any plan will fail unless it has input from the campers. At the same time, however, any solution has to be one that everyone else can live with and doesn’t exacerbate the problem. Using city parks for toilets is wrong, no matter who does it.
We face a moral, as well as a practical, dilemma. By accommodating the campers, are we making it easier for people who need help to avoid taking help?
In the long term, local governments are trying to provide that help by creating the 367 housing units estimated to be needed for all the chronically homeless in the capital region.
In the short term, fresh ideas are desperately needed.
