27642 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

I have known several alcoholics in my life. There is no way a so-called MAP would have improved their lives. They learned to live quite well without alcohol. Anyone can.

[spanky123]

I guess that when you run out of drug addicts to exploit and profit from you have to find additional sources of income.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Nparker]

Housing with (alleged) wraparound supports, has been available for years in the CoV. The problem of camping in parks is one of political philosophy and bylaw enforcement, not lack of accommodation.

[Matt R.]

FB reminded me of the weird little patio thing built in the middle of Cook street near BHP, where the city just reported the centre line into a sort of zig zag, lol. Whatever happened to that? I think it was run by the Red Cedar folks.

[Victoria Watcher]

VIDEO:

 

https://globalnews.c...03/?jwsource=cl

 

 

 

Vancouver’s last 2 homeless camps cost the city $6M, the cost of 2 more has yet to be calculated

 

https://globalnews.c...ess-camp-costs/

[Ismo07]

Is this why they say it's less expensive to house folks?

[Mike K.]

FB reminded me of the weird little patio thing built in the middle of Cook street near BHP, where the city just reported the centre line into a sort of zig zag, lol. Whatever happened to that? I think it was run by the Red Cedar folks.

It was. The Red Cedar moved its sidewalk patio license to BHP, on Cook Street, due to a loophole in the rules.

[Matt R.]

It’s long gone, I assume? I don’t get out much.

[IPH]

E9EAABD7-C40E-415C-8851-F611C5477A87.jpeg

the city has a similar crew complete with street sweepers and multiple dumpsters in the 900 block of Pandora EVERY NIGHT!   Tax payers are clearly getting excellent value for the money they pour into City hall.  Housing First is an obviously success so, Blinders On and Carry On!

[Nparker]

Not surprisingly, the 'coalition' is asking for an extension on the tiny homes mess.

https://victoriahome...ss.ca/tinyhomes

[Victoria Watcher]

Path out of poverty is productive work

Re: “We must tax the rich, for the benefit of all,” column, Jan. 22.

 

I could not for the life of me imagine that anyone, much less Trevor Hancock, a retired UVic professor of public health, still proclaims as virtue the ideals espoused by Marx and Engels in their Communist Manifesto of 1848. Those ideals are as impractical, unworkable and immoral now as they were in the middle of the 19th century.

 

While I concur that our convoluted and gerrymandered tax laws allow very wealthy individuals (who make ­DiCaprio’s Wolf of Wall Street look like my maiden aunt) to avoid proper, just and even taxation, the Robin Hood approach to re-distribution of wealth does not fly.

 

I know of many poor people who are just as rotten to the core, and so do you. Scoundrels abound; it has nothing to do with wealth or lack of it.

 

As for the efficacy of redistributing all this ill-gotten wealth, Hancock’s supposition that the trillions stolen from the rich to be funnelled to the most deserving poor would lift two billion people out of poverty has no basis in reality.

 

No, the way to drag a person out of poverty is to enable them to do productive work, plain and simple.

 

There is that old adage which Hancock chooses to ignore: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

 

Oh, and if you then steal all the fish he catches, he will leave you, and go somewhere else, leaving you with no fish to steal.

 

M.D. Hansen
Victoria

 

 

https://www.timescol...of-dogs-6449300

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 January 2023 - 05:26 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Indeed it would appear Victoria is not doing a count, again this year.

 

 

 

 

B.C.'s homeless population expected to show increase when counts return in March

 

https://www.timescol...n-march-6443725

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 January 2023 - 05:25 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Death at 844 Johnson: 'We both knew this building was going to kill him'

 

In a video shot by his daughter just before Christmas, Jamaal Johnson said it was impossible for him to fight his addictions while living at 844 Johnson. He was right

 

Jamaal, who was an alcoholic and a crack-cocaine addict, was devastated when he learned he was going to be transferred there from a temporary shelter created at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So was his wife, who has been “deep in the building,” and compares it to a kill shelter for dogs.

 

“They’re shoving them in there, giving them all of the sunshine and roses promises and they’re giving them nothing. Jamaal thought he could get better and then he could go home. But walking in, we both had an instant, heavy dark feeling.”

 

Jamaal wanted a place where his daughter could visit him safely, a place he could cook ribs for her and watch basketball.

 

“We both knew this building was going to kill him and it did. I strongly believe that if Jamaal hadn’t been in the building, he’d be alive. One hundred per cent. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Courtney said.

 

The heroin smoke in the hallways is so intense, it makes you feel dizzy, she said. Support workers reach into their drawers and pass out clean needles or a pipe.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...johnson-6448319

 

 

Staffing at the building includes four mental-health workers onsite 24 hours a day, says Micheal Vonn, chief executive officer for PHS Community Services Society, which runs the facility. Two maintenance workers, two home-support workers and two managers work 40 hours a week. A commercial kitchen provides two meals a day, seven days a week.

 

Cool Aid’s medical clinic provides 24 hours a week of nursing and physician time. An Indigenous outreach workers is there 24 hours a week and a pharmacy is open four hours every day.

 

Island Health clinical teams — the Assertive Community Action Team, Integrated Case Management, Crisis Management and Health and Housing — help residents who need health supports. Island Health also funds overdose-prevention services onsite.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 January 2023 - 06:19 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Indeed it would appear Victoria is not doing a count, again this year.

 

 

My error.  Apologies.

 

There WILL be a Victoria count this year.

 

https://communitycou...ime-count-2023/

[Victoria Watcher]

Jimmy Sarasin wants to be as trusted as Rev. Al Tysick was.

 

When he was struggling with addiction and living on the streets, Sarasin could count on the street pastor to drop by every morning with coffee and a couple of cigarettes.

 

“No matter where you were, whether you were at Paul’s Motor Inn or down by the bottle depot, at Rock Bay or in front of Our Place, everybody knew: ‘It’s 6 a.m., Al’s going to be by with smokes and coffee.’ ”

 

Sarasin is trying to bring that same level of trust to his new job. He’s one of two Pandora corridor “caretakers” hired to clean up the chaotic 900 block of the avenue.

 

The pilot program, run by SOLID Outreach Society in partnership with the City of Victoria, is funded with a $125,000 grant from the Union of B.C. Municipalities.

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...orridor-6488349

 

 

 

“When they seize people’s tents, they don’t keep it. They turf it right out. They say they can’t store the tent because of mildew issues. That’s the guy’s shelter. They seize his shelter. They seize his stuff. It takes me a day to get his stuff back, which I do. And they don’t want to release this stuff unless it’s to a lawful park. They don’t want it to go back to the block,” said Sarasin.

 

“Now the guy’s sitting in the park with all of his belongings, a slave to his belongings. He’s got no coverage for them. They’re going to get stolen. So what’s he going to do? So. Bang. He’s back to the block or he’s going to Walmart to steal another tent. That’s a huge fail. The guy’s back on the block.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From what I can tell, they are moving people to parks.  Where they inevitably stay during the daytime, which is not legal.

[Victoria Watcher]

Victoria councillor calls for more security around supportive housing

 

Coun. Stephen Hammond says the province must pay to protect Victoria residents inside and outside the supporting housing facilities that are causing safety and crime problems.

 

https://www.timescol...housing-6488354

 

 

Victoria Coun. Stephen Hammond is hoping to convince his colleagues to sign off on a letter urging the province to provide more security around supportive housing facilities.

[Victoria Watcher]

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/...329130804215808

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Galiano -  17 people per sq. km.

Victoria - 1550 people per sq. km.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 February 2023 - 03:29 AM.

[dasmo]

Reminds me of the Davos crowd flying around in jets scheming how to force us to only ride bikes…

[Stephen James]

My error.  Apologies.

 

There WILL be a Victoria count this year.

 

https://communitycou...ime-count-2023/

Once again, the count being done by those most likely to benefit...

Just awful.

These are the same counters who lined up with M Helps fanciful narrative that no-one was moving here in 2016-17. It should be disregarded as another political manoeuvre.