Two bus shelters in Duncan will be removed, after ongoing complaints that they were being used as a place to stay by people without homes.
Cowichan Valley Regional District board directors have voted to remove the two shelters, one on James Street near Cowichan Secondary School and the other at Village Green Mall.
District staff told directors they face continuing maintenance issues, security challenges and complaints of inappropriate use.
“Over the past year, and especially since the start of winter 2023, CVRD transit staff have been attending to numerous complaints from transit customers, businesses, and the Cowichan transit operating company (Transdev, on behalf of their drivers and management) regarding misuse of the transit shelters in the core area,” a staff report said.
“The misuse involves loitering, open drug and alcohol use, and increasingly, unhoused individuals using the transit shelters as a place to stay.”
While other bus shelters in the region may experience similar issues, the two at the mall and on James Street are most affected, with loitering, illegal activity, graffiti, and garbage left on the ground, they said.
RCMP are called in at times.
Staff believe one factor is the warming centre nearby. People turn to the transit shelter when the centre is busy or full, since it has benches and walls to shield them from the elements.
Transit users have complained that they can’t use the two shelters and have to stand outside.
Staff are spending a lot of time on trying to keep the transit shelters clean, which includes washing and disinfecting, and removing garbage, but the work is ongoing and doesn’t deal with safety issues, a staff report said.
Many bus passengers who use transit to commute to Victoria don’t come into the bus shelter at all but will sit in their vehicles until their bus arrives, then run to catch it, staff told directors.
While they expressed concern about the lack of facilities and support for the unhoused, regional district directors said the current situation leaves those with mobility issues or travelling with small children unable to use the bus shelters.
They voted to write a letter to the province calling for assistance.
Director Sierra Acton called the situation infuriating, saying: “We are forced to make a decision that is not in anyone’s best interest.”
Director Aaron Stone said that every municipality and regional district with any kind of urban area is dealing with similar issues.
“The reality is these problems are not going to be solved in three months, six months, and right now our bus stops are not accessible to the people that need to use the buses.”
Senior governments are responsible for taking care of unhoused populations, Stone said. “There’s no measure that you can say that they are doing a sufficient job right now. It continues to get worse.”
Meanwhile, Parksville hadn’t even officially opened the new washroom at its popular community beach park when it was attacked by vandals.
Now the accessible facility has been closed indefinitely.
Municipal staff discovered the damage when they opened the washroom to run through cleaning and maintenance procedures with staff and to illustrate the opening and closing process with a security company.
In the men’s side, soap dispensers were torn from the wall and soap was dumped over the space, while the urinal privacy separator and the door to the accessible stall were ripped off the wall. Later in the day, the exterior of the building and the door of the male washroom were tagged with graffiti, a statement from the city said. Oceanside RCMP have been notified of the “senseless destruction,” it said.
Damage is estimated to total at least $6,000, along with additional staff time devoted to a cleanup.
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