The City of Victoria is asking the province to provide washroom facilities for the unhoused along part of Pandora Avenue.
Victoria council Thursday directed Mayor Marianne Alto to write to the provincial ministers of housing, health and social development and poverty reduction to ask for a temporary washroom on the 900-block of Pandora and that the province either staff the facility or provide funding for a non-profit service provider organization to staff it.
The letter will also be sent to B.C. Housing, Island Health and local medical health officers.
In a motion laying out the rationale for the move, Alto and councillors Dave Thompson and Krista Loughton noted support services for unhoused people is a provincial responsibility and the Belonging in B.C. strategy dictates the province will provide opportunities for unhoused people to access essential services like washrooms.
The councillors added the basic human need must be met before people can reasonably access other support services.
“Meanwhile, there is an immediate need to provide basic washroom services for folks still resting on the boulevard. In the absence of any alternative facility, housed residents and business owners report frequent incidents of people urinating and defecating in public places and on private property,” the motion said.
Thompson, the council’s downtown liaison, has been pushing for a facility like this for months, noting businesses, churches and residents in the area have to clean out urine and feces from their doorways, gardens and sidewalks every week.
Bathrooms at Our Place Society are open between 7:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. and facilities are available for people using a safe inhalation site on the block that is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but there is no place to go on the block overnight.
-thumb.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)