25957 replies to this topic

[kitty surprise]

For some, making the move indoors is a challenge.

Ronald Beland got the keys to a bachelor apartment in supportive housing last week, but he’s decided to continue sleeping outdoors temporarily so he can look out for the community that remains in Stadacona Park.

Beland said staying indoors reminds him of his time spent in prison. “I don’t like that door closed and the walls around me.”


https://www.timescol...pens-1.24314722

We bought him a secure apartment and it's still not good enough?

Here come the excuses!

... Reminds me of prison

... I miss my 'community'

It's pretty obvious by now, until we buy them granite countertops and jacuzzi tubs with stream showers in tony Uplands they'll never be happy.

Edited by kitty surprise, 04 May 2021 - 06:09 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

these people are - on the whole - mentally ill.   almost all of them.    

[Rob Randall]

I have heard of this before. Being surrounded by four walls wigs them out. Some sleep on their balcony. Maybe not all mental illness, just a severe anxiety. Most I think get over it. 

[Nparker]

these people are - on the whole - mentally ill.   almost all of them.     

This is why "housing first" is a failed policy. Many of the homeless need mental health supports that the current model simply does not provide.

[pennymurphy2000]

Severe anxiety is classified as a mental health condition. I see that some people are protesting the facility in Central Saanich. They are right to be worried. There are no real supports in this facilities. Harm reduction supplies for sure, but not much else. 

[spanky123]

For some, making the move indoors is a challenge.

Ronald Beland got the keys to a bachelor apartment in supportive housing last week, but he’s decided to continue sleeping outdoors temporarily so he can look out for the community that remains in Stadacona Park.

Beland said staying indoors reminds him of his time spent in prison. “I don’t like that door closed and the walls around me.”

 

Might have been a good idea to get this information BEFORE BC Housing spent $100M on rooms for people who don't want them. Don't worry though, like the Rehab centre in View Royal that had 3 out of 50 rooms occupied, BC Housing will make sure that you THINK the sites are fully utilized and that the money wasn't wasted.

[sebberry]

I have heard of this before. Being surrounded by four walls wigs them out. Some sleep on their balcony. Maybe not all mental illness, just a severe anxiety. Most I think get over it. 

 

Look, people are paying nearly half a million dollars to live in condos where they can touch opposing walls with outstretched arms.  It can't be all that bad being surrounded by walls...

[Awaiting Juno]

UVIC will be in full swing.  The hundreds of new "residence".  Helps and Issit will be doing high fives about warehousing the homeless.

 

Don't lower your guard.  Can you imagine the devastation if they get back in with a new agenda?

 

A new mandate is frightful, and the existing agenda is bad enough.

[On the Level]

Stephanie Hardman is fighting to keep 7x24 camping going....

 

 

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[sebberry]

Of course she is...

[Midnightly]

why is it soo hard for those like stefanie hardman to understand that there is not simply endless space, and endless apartment buildings and condos and hotels to continually place people into.. in general Victoria proper has a very small footprint of space and there isn't empty fields for endless housing... even the other municipalities in the crd don't have endless amount of space to keep popping up housing...

 

and also why do we have to keep providing permanent housing for these people just because they come here and camp?! wasn't the whole point of allowing people to put up a tent was due to lack of shelter space? to me that picture looks like it provides separated shelter space for each individual (there won't be a different person in the pod next to you every night) and that's what the tent ruling was all about  shelter... it was never about permanent housing...and what is the end goal with the permanent housing...

 

what makes a person want to change their lives, move on and become a positive member of society again if everything is provided and life is easy (with your own room and a door that shuts behind you)

[sebberry]

what makes a person want to change their lives, move on and become a positive member of society

 

I don't know, but I'm waiting for Ben and Company to do just that...

[Victoria Watcher]

 

 

None of these events were crimes or resulted in a call to police, so according to the news and council, I must have been perceiving things that weren't there. And for the record, as of this morning, there were as many tents in Irving Park and Beacon Hill Park as at any time since council let them in, so I don't know what the mayor is talking about.

 

oh well.  we tried.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 May 2021 - 07:18 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Residents shocked by shelter

 

 

Residents in Vic West in Victoria were surprised as campers sheltering in Victoria parks began moving into their neighbourhood this week.

 

CTV News Vancouver Island is reporting the new Russell Street shelter in Vic West is now open and will house up to 60 people in individual pods.

 

_________________

 

One Vic West resident says the shelter opening was a surprise.

 

“This is a shock to us still,” said Tony Young, adding that the community is bracing for the worst.

 

“There are things that are going to happen and there’s probably going to be more criminal activity,” said Young. “Drug use and so forth and we’re concerned about that.”

 

“Approximately 106 people are waiting to move into shelters on Russell Street, tiny homes and a few other spaces here and there,” said Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps.

 

Helps says after recent violent incidents in Victoria parks, getting everyone housed can’t come soon enough.

 

“When people are not living in parks, it doesn’t attract the kind of violence that can happen,” said Helps. “The inside opportunities can’t come soon enough from everyone’s perspective, including mine.”

 

 

https://www.castanet...est-in-Victoria

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 May 2021 - 07:23 PM.

[Sparky]

^ The Russell Street facility experienced their first overdose less than two hours of opening the door.

[Midnightly]

^ The Russell Street facility experienced their first overdose less than two hours of opening the door.

That was quick... i wonder if it's a new record

[Victoria Watcher]

^ The Russell Street facility experienced their first overdose less than two hours of opening the door.

proof it's working! 1 life saved already. you need to move quickly to eliminate the stigma.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 May 2021 - 02:16 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

They should go to work like the rest of us

 

I object to the B.C. government using my hard-earned money to purchase hotels and spend copious hordes of money to refurbish them just so we can house the layabouts.

 

The crowning blow is supplying them with three meals a day. As far as I’m concerned, they should give them a bus ticket to ship them off to where they came from.

 

I went to school and college, got a good job and was a success, I might add, to earn my way in this world of ours. From my side of the fence, these recalcitrant squatters that are desecrating our parks should be sent flying.

 

They have no ambition as far as I can see. On top of all this, the city has to deal with their chosen habit of doing drugs; isn’t that enough?

 

Certainly it’s not a great image for the beautiful garden city of Victoria. When will the government run out of money and hotels to buy to house these individuals, because if they are not nipped in the bud, they will just keep coming and coming, year in, year out, to squat in our parks.

 

It’s a Catch-22 situation, in my opinion.

 

Richard Brown
Cobble Hill

 

https://www.timescol...lost-1.24315269

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 May 2021 - 05:14 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Beacon Hill campers a sign of things to come

 

The Times Colonist could not have planned a series of news stories better designed to infuriate Victorians than the recent reports this week.

 

First, we have the fool who drove an unregistered, uninsured car from Alberta to camp in a Victoria park and ended up doing doughnuts in a James Bay park, where he was arrested. Oh great, now our parks are a known camping destination.

 

Then we have Saturday’s report of Beacon Hill campers who don’t intend to leave. One woman (“Potato”) can’t figure out how to live indoors since graduating from high school four years ago.

 

This is followed by Max, who’s repairing bicycles in his tent because he can’t do that in an apartment or hotel room, and besides, he’s living rent-free. Talk about self-entitled. And is he being given free meals each day?

 

These are not the homeless; they’re people with a chosen lifestyle — the same as those illegally camped in RVs in the park and on the road.

 

It’s not the meek who shall inherit the Earth, it’s the entitled, and they’ve already inherited Beacon Hill Park.

 

Winston Jackson
Fairfield

 

https://www.timescol...lost-1.24315269

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 May 2021 - 05:17 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Nancy is one of about 10 people who moved into the shelter on its opening day, and more were trickling in Tuesday morning. Outreach workers welcomed them with intake forms, going over the shelter’s rules barring physical violence, weapons, sexual harassment, verbal abuse and drug use in a two-block radius outside of the ­property, among other expectations.

 

________________

 

Our Place staff are planning on assembling a “clean team” of shelter residents who are interested in picking up litter from the surrounding neighbourhood, and two people have already expressed interest, Mingo said.

 

Shelter design and ­management are aimed at mitigating the risk of drug overdose, with communal areas where people are encouraged to use in the presence of someone else and shower doors that include a small communication area that allows staff to speak to and hear residents inside without seeing them.

 

Staff will check on people using the shower units after 10 minutes, and if they don’t get a response, they’ll go inside to see how they’re doing, Mingo said.

_____________________

 

Our Place staff will be on site 24/7, and outreach workers from PEERS Victoria Resources Society and AVI Health and Community Services will provide some daytime harm-reduction support.

 

Residents are also asked to provide information about what substances they use, how they use them and how often, to give staff a sense of residents’ baselines and what signs of distress to look out for.

 

While the shelter has space for about 70 people, the ­capacity is currently limited by the ­province to 30, Mingo said.

 

https://www.timescol...oors-1.24315266

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 05 May 2021 - 05:52 AM.