26034 replies to this topic

[JimV]

True, although when the federal conservatives become government we might make a little progress on the crime problem.

 

Drugs are more or less intractable.  Politicians like to talk about treatment, but that only works if the addict wants to get clean and has the will power to do it.  This is a small segment of the addicts and usually not the ones who are a social problem.  Some kind of involuntary confinement is needed but our society is probably too frightened of violating someone’s imaginary rights to take stern action.

[lanforod]

That said, there are lots of ways to make it less attractive and encourage making the right choices. Many of those require a lot of time to take effect. Safe supply BS needs to go. Bring back DARE programs, stigmatize drug use.

[Nparker]

...stigmatize drug use.

At least stigmatize hard core drug use to the same extent as alcohol and tobacco.

[dasmo]

The scene downtown does do a great job with my kid making drug use unattractive. It's not a commercial frying an egg. Or a "Just say no" tagline. It is visceral and real. As we park in the parkade and hold our breath in the stairwell so we don't breathe in secondhand piss. Then jump over the puke on the sidewalk. Ignore the zombie digging up the paver to get their stash. Hold the breath again as you pass the meth smokers.... 

[Mike K.]

Here is a letter that will presumably go before the Province from Sooke council. The letter makes an assertion that I have bolded. It will be interesting to see how this manifests, and whether the goal as outlined is actually achieved:

 

April ___, 2024

 

The Hon. Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing

 

Terri Collins, Deputy Minister, BC Ministry of Housing

 

BC Housing, Vancouver Island Regional Office

 

Re: Additional emergency shelter beds, staffing and administrative funding for the Sooke Shelter

 

Dear Minister Kahlon, Deputy Minister Collins and BC Housing representatives,

 

Sincere thanks for your ongoing support of the Sooke Shelter at Hummingbird Place (formerly known as the Hope Centre) in Sooke’s town centre. It has made a world of difference in providing homes for previously unhoused individuals as well as support services for residents and those at-risk of homelessness in our community.

 

As you’ll see in the problem statement below, however, homelessness is a growing concern in Sooke, especially as it relates to tenting in public spaces.

 

Staff at the Sooke Shelter Society have identified ground-floor space at Hummingbird Place that could provide safe, secure overnight accommodation for as many as 19 individuals who would otherwise be forced to camp outdoors. To achieve this, the Shelter will require three additional staff members and increased administrative funding as per the request below.

 

On April 8, Sooke council approved the following motion: “THAT Council ask the Mayor to write a letter to the BC Minister of Housing seeking additional staff and operational funding to allow an increase in the number of overnight beds at the Sooke Shelter; and that a meeting be requested with Minister Kahlon's office and representatives from BC Housing to discuss this matter.”

 

Problem Statement: 

 

Homelessness and the risk-of-it in continues to grow alarmingly in the Sooke region as is the case elsewhere in British Columbia and Canada as a whole. 

 

The District of Sooke dedicates significant municipal resources to this complex issue, both of necessity and from an attitude of compassion. This includes bylaw enforcement, Sooke RCMP, Sooke Fire Service first responders, and the involvement of staff from our parks and communications departments.

 

A significant ongoing dilemma is overnight tenting in locations throughout Sooke, including the District-owned Ed Macgregor Park and on private property within close proximity of the Sooke Shelter. A recent fire caused by a campsite propane heater in the park could have grown into a significant incident without the close attention of neighbouring homeowners and the quick intervention of Sooke Fire. 

 

Upon completion of a final stage of construction in the near future, Hummingbird Place will feature 33 supportive housing tenanted suites, for which currently there is a 45-person wait list. An additional six overnight emergency shelter beds have long been planned for the ground-floor services hub. This area will double as an extreme weather emergency centre as required. 

 

It is now recognized, however, that the six overnight beds in the service hub will not meet the needs of Sooke’s unhoused population as it stands in 2024 and in future.

 

The layout of the service hub has been re-evaluated by Shelter staff. They have identified space for 13 additional beds, thereby increasing the total to 19 beds that could be utilized as overnight shelter during the hours of 7 PM to 7 AM year-round.   

 

The Supportive Housing is currently staffed by two support workers operating two 12-hour shifts, 24/7. These teams are working at optimum capacity already and will need to be bolstered by additional staff for the main floor hub and shelter.   

 

The addition of safe, secure overnight shelter for unhoused individuals in Sooke will dramatically reduce the number of people living in tents outdoors and in public spaces. As a result, community safety for citizens and the unhoused alike will be increased while the strain on limited municipal resources diminishes. 

 

Request: 

 

On behalf of the Sooke Shelter Society and the Sooke Homelessness Coalition, I would like to lead a delegation to meet with Minister Kahlon’s staff and BC Housing representatives in the near future. Our asks will be the following:  

 

* That BC Housing provide additional operating funds to employ three additional employees 24/7 to oversee the hub and shelter as detailed herein; and  

 

* That BC Housing further augment the Sooke Shelter’s budget by 15% to provide administrative support to the Sooke Shelter Society’s leadership team. 

 

Please let us know if you have any questions. The District’s Corporate Services team will be in touch to arrange a mutually convenient time. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Mayor Maja Tait

 

District of Sooke 

 

cc Ravi Parmar, MLA, Esquimalt Saanich Sooke

 

cc Sherry Thompson, Executive Director, Sooke Shelter Society

 

cc Melanie Cunningham, President, Sooke Shelter Society

[Nparker]

The addition of safe, secure overnight shelter for unhoused individuals in Sooke will dramatically reduce the number of people living in tents outdoors and in public spaces.

Newsflash from the City of Victoria to the residents of Sooke: additional shelter spaces will NOT dramatically reduce the number of people living in tents. Build it and they will come...and come...and come.

 

Constant repetition of this lie, has yet to make it true.

[Beacon]

Build it and They will come indeed,

 

Here's the welcome package of benefits when you arrive in Victoria:

 

https://victoriahome...eMobile2022.pdf

 

https://victoriahome...eMobile2022.pdf

Edited by Beacon, 05 April 2024 - 10:58 AM.

[Nparker]

Was there ever a more misnamed organization than the "Coalition to End Homelessness"?

[Beacon]

Was there ever a more misnamed organization than the "Coalition to End Homelessness"?

 

The Coalition to End Homelessness by 2018?  

[dasmo]

16 years later and these ideas have not worked obviously. So how does the saying go again? 

 

https://thetyee.ca/V...elessSolutions/

[Nparker]

Every single one of the strategies in that Tyee article has been implemented in BC and homelessness/addiction has never been worse. Perhaps it's time to think outside of the misguided compassion box.

[dasmo]

Apply harm reduction to all. Not harm transfer. You have the right to sleep, and do drugs but not the right to take over public space, destroy businesses and have people suffer by the outfall. Unfortunately now that it’s no longer a bud, but a full blown forest, there is no nipping.

Provide services to help those down on their luck and services to preserve the standard of living for those up in their luck. The rest is just life. There is no end in sight. Only balance.

[Nparker]

Re-open mental health facilities.

[dasmo]

They always bring up Portugal but....

 

But the virtues of the PDPM do not only rely on the decriminalization law per se, but on the set of devices forged and implemented in the meantime. Alongside the legislative changes, it became evident that there was a need to develop more specialized and autonomous coordination mechanisms, namely the Commissions for the Dissuasion of Drug Addiction, responsible for implementing administrative sanctions, and harm reduction structures, lacking at that time.

 

The Commissions’ multidisciplinary teams carry mainly psychosocial intervention, and are accountable for psychological assessment, for providing technical support in determining suspensive measures or sanctioning measures, for referral to health structures and follow-up in the provisional suspension of the procedure, for the determination and execution of those measures, as well as for the application of other alternatives [46]. Police forces are expected to remain the primary source of detection of drug use and subsequent referral.Footnote4

The Commission’s principles are in line with the hegemonic discourse in what concerns abstinence. Its main goal is encouraging adherence to treatment, or the decision to abstain from drug use (Decree-Law n. 130-A/2001). Moreover, while referral to health structures is optional, physically presenting oneself before the Commissions is mandatory for those who are caught using drugs.

 

Paradoxically, despite having decriminalized the use of all illegal drugs, Portugal has an increasing number of people criminally sanctioned - some with prison terms - for drug use [25,26,27]. Regarding criminal sanctions, in 2019, among the convictions under the Drug Law (1883 individuals), drug use (42%) was the second most common, behind drug dealing (58%); no one has been sanctioned for dealing-using [27]. Before 2008, reflecting the decriminalization law, sentences for drug use were almost non-existent and exclusively related to cultivation, which continued to be a crime (article 40° of the Decree-Law n. 15/93, of 22 January).

 

 

 

https://substanceabu...011-021-00394-7

[Mike K.]

We have grown to understand any comparison to any other jurisdiction is always just a small part of a much bigger story.

[Victoria Watcher]

Meanwhile, Parksville hadn’t even officially opened the new washroom at its popular ­community beach park when it was attacked by vandals.

 

Now the accessible facility has been closed indefinitely.

 

Municipal staff discovered the damage when they opened the washroom to run through cleaning and maintenance ­procedures with staff and to illustrate the opening and ­closing process with a security company.

 

In the men’s side, soap ­dispensers were torn from the wall and soap was dumped over the space, while the ­urinal ­privacy separator and the door to the accessible stall were ripped off the wall. Later in the day, the exterior of the ­building and the door of the male ­washroom were tagged with graffiti, a statement from the city said. Oceanside RCMP have been notified of the “senseless destruction,” it said.

 

Damage is estimated to total at least $6,000, along with ­additional staff time devoted to a cleanup.

 

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...removed-8561765

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 April 2024 - 04:05 AM.

[Matt R.]

The CRD built a nice new washroom facility in the big park here, where the market happens and the kids play etc, but closed it shortly afterwards. Same reason. Smashed up, vandalized, set on fire. Awful.

I think they do open it market days and some others when crowds are expected.

[Mike K.]

Gman posted a little back a very nice photo of a horror scene in the washroom on the Goose, on the Vic West side of the trestle.

[Beacon]

I took a drive down Pandora avenue yesterday and wow, it's as bad as peak Covid again already. 

 

Migration and outdoor camping w/services nearby is a huge draw to our city.  It's worse than ever and this is after all those hotels were used to house so many people experiencing homelessness already.  Everywhere one of those supportive housing facilities exists is like a blight in the local area with garbage strewn about, people stoned out of their minds and just general disorder surrounding the facilities.  For every new one that shows up, more is spread...what will this look like in 10, 20 years if this same strategy is used?

 

This is getting worse, not better.  Solutions needed, and it starts will getting people off drugs and on a path to success.

[dasmo]

This is getting worse, not better.

 

Just wait for 20 years of our government fighting the climate....