25959 replies to this topic

[mbjj]

that’s why these folks need supervision. like kids. no matches.

There's a guy who seems to be camping out in a bus shelter on Fairfield. One day when I walked past there were dozens and dozens of cigarette butts on the ground. Today I saw him holding a lighter and staring in a mesmerized fashion at the flame. Very few bus riders can use that shelter. It's filthy dirty and smells.

[JimV]

Drove through BHP today to the extent possible.  I counted nine tents though there are no doubt a few more nestled in the bushes or out of sight from the road.  Lots of parks staff working, presumably restoring the grounds. For the first time in a year there were a lot of normal people strolling around.  So it looks like it is coming back.  The trouble has perhaps been relocated to the various shelters.

[A Girl is No one]

Until the next batch arrives.

[Victoria Watcher]

As people arrive from living outdoors, where there are no rules, it can take time for them to adjust to more structured ­living, McKenzie said.

 

“What we really want to see happening is that once ­everybody is in these housing units, we want to be able to move people around,” he said. “Because not everybody is going to be a perfect fit right off the bat at the site that they are ­chosen for.”

 

The latest incident prompted McKenzie to call again for a complex-care facility in ­Victoria, especially for those for whom day-to-day life is often overwhelming.

 

Our Place will see someone in the midst of a psychotic episode banging their head on the wall with their face covered in blood, and the person will be taken to a hospital emergency department, only to be sent back in an hour via taxi, he said.

 

McKenzie said he would like to see a secure facility with 50 to 100 beds, staffed around the clock with health ­professionals, similar to Our Place’s New Roads therapeutic centre in View Royal. That facility is ­dedicated to working with ­people to end cycles of substance abuse, criminal behaviour and homelessness.

 

https://www.timescol...fire-1.24320685

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 19 May 2021 - 05:21 AM.

[Mike K.]

It would be good to know some basic stats on New Roads.

[Nparker]

...McKenzie said he would like to see a secure facility with 50 to 100 beds, staffed around the clock with health ­professionals, similar to Our Place’s New Roads therapeutic centre in View Royal. That facility is ­dedicated to working with ­people to end cycles of substance abuse, criminal behaviour and homelessness...

Is anyone currently housed at the New Roads facility?

[spanky123]

It would be good to know some basic stats on New Roads.

 

This is a discussion we have had now for 6+ years. New Roads and Woodwyn were failures as treatment facilities. From what I know and have reported on VV for years is that New Roads never had more than twenty of fifty beds occupied and many times the number was 3-5. For years we heard the excuse from the pimps that it takes time to fill these facilities (despite them also telling us there was a dire need for them). Last year they gave up and filled New Roads with regular homeless people to help get people out of parks. All Grant is doing now (in my opinion) is what Our Place has been doing all along, using the perceived lack of treatment as an excuse for the failure of the housing first model.

 

If you talk with the addicted (as I have during the housing surveys) you will hear that they don't want treatment, they want to be supported in their drug use. In fact they get fewer supports and services when they are sober then when they are high. The system is such that the pimps profit by keeping people in a state of stupor and the addicts get the drugs and housing they want with no incentive to get clean.

Edited by spanky123, 19 May 2021 - 06:52 AM.

[Mike K.]

That’s a good recap, thank you.

We were initially told housing first was the path to recovery. Now the path to recovery is impossible without a layer of treatment between supportive housing and jail, which exists in several ways, but has very low uptake and its success is negligible.

[Victoria Watcher]

A man was arrested Tuesday after threatening police and bylaw officers with a knife in Cecelia Ravine Park.

 

Shortly before 9 a.m., police were accompanying bylaw staff at the park as they enforced sheltering rules and asked people to pack up their belongings. One man, who police say had been given previous warnings, refused to leave and became aggressive, threatening to stab officers and bylaw staff with a knife.

 

VicPD says officers tried to use de-escalation techniques, but the man fled the area with his knife. Officers chased after him and caught up to him in the 400-block of Burnside Road East, where he was arrested at gunpoint. Officers seized the man’s knife.

 

 

 

https://www.vicnews....law-with-knife/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 19 May 2021 - 09:16 AM.

[spanky123]

^ And then he was returned to the streets.

[spanky123]

That’s a good recap, thank you.

We were initially told housing first was the path to recovery. Now the path to recovery is impossible without a layer of treatment between supportive housing and jail, which exists in several ways, but has very low uptake and its success is negligible.

 

All one needs to do is google the facility and a long sorry tale of money, aspirations, good news stories and changes of plan keep repeating themselves.

[A Girl is No one]

^ And then he was returned to the streets.

He’s not dangerous anymore because he doesn’t have his knife anymore, don’t you see? (/cynical)

[Victoria Watcher]

The man who allegedly started a fire at the Sooke Shelter in March has been charged with arson, two counts of assault and one count of mischief.

Robert Dick, 42, is in custody awaiting trial.

https://www.vicnews....for-march-fire/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 19 May 2021 - 06:53 PM.

[VIResident]

Well done City of Victoria, Agencies and BC Provincial Gov., NDP, and our Premier John Horgan!  Housed hundreds of homeless and the 17 remaining in the BH park, hoping they too can

be housed soon. https://www.timescol...ired-1.24321076

With most campers out, Beacon Hill and other parks to be repaired

 

Carla Wilson / Times Colonist

 

[Victoria Watcher]

Despite continuing enforcement of the 24-7 ban on camping, some people are not budging.

 

For those people, “their situations are difficult and so as much as possible, staff will continue to work with them to find solutions,” Helps said.

 

But at a certain point, if ­people refuse to take down their tents, the city will need to seek a court injunction so police can enforce the bylaw, Helps said.

 

“No one wants that,” she said. “There are easier and more effective ways, but we do have that tool and are prepared to use it should we need to.”

 

Helps said the “next frontier” is opening complex-care facilities as soon as possible for those who don’t fit into available sheltered housing because of mental-health and addictions challenges.

 

“In every park and every street in urban British Columbia, there are people who simply don’t fit into the current system. It’s not their fault.

 

“It is just that the system doesn’t fit the needs that they have.”

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...ired-1.24321076

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 May 2021 - 05:31 AM.

[A Girl is No one]

So what does “at a certain point” mean? They have had plenty of time already. This is not what the agreement was.

[spanky123]

So what does “at a certain point” mean? They have had plenty of time already. This is not what the agreement was.

 

We have to wait until the "complex care facilities" are ready. Obviously Eby knew that and has a plan.

[JimV]

 

 

 

“No one wants that,” she said. “There are easier and more effective ways, but we do have that tool and are prepared to use it should we need to.”

 

The easiest and most effective tool would be some judicious application of the public truncheon.  Of course that’s the one they’re not prepared to use.

[JimV]

Meanwhile, I see there has been another stabbing at a shelter.  900 block of Caledonia.  Would that be the arena?

 

However, there’s no blame to lay.  As the mayor says, it’s not their fault, they just need complex care. We’ve really got to make the system fit their needs.

[Mike K.]

It was the 800-block, and yes it sounds like it was in the arena. Police are asking for witnesses.