Victoria council will consider creating a full-time position to address homelessness in the city during its budget process next year.
Councillors endorsed a recommendation Thursday to consider allocating funding in the 2022 budget for a position focused on resolving barriers to ending homelessness.
The recommendation stems from a report by Nicole Chaland, a homeless advocate, who presented a 102-page report to councillors called COVID-19: The beginning of the end of homelessness, with the goal of identifying barriers to ending homelessness and proposing solutions.
Chaland identified an “extreme shortage” of housing in the city that’s affordable to those with the lowest incomes.
The proposed full-time position would represent a shift from simply responding to homelessness to working toward achieving adequate housing, and would identify gaps in service where the city can make a difference, among other goals detailed in Chaland’s report.
Councillors also endorsed a recommendation to review a funding and services agreement with the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness and consider providing equitable levels of funding to the Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness in the 2022 budget. Victoria provides $100,000 annually to the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, according to Chaland’s report.
Indigenous people are over-represented in homelessness counts and emergency shelters, with the 2020 Point-in-Time count showing 35 per cent of respondents identified as Indigenous, despite making up only five per cent of Greater Victoria’s population, Chaland writes.
The majority of Indigenous people experiencing homelessness in Victoria became homeless as youths, have been in the foster-care system, and have personal or family experiences with residential schools.
