27642 replies to this topic

[aastra]

Plenty of "if only..." shirts are available at your local political campaign office. (No matter which party's office it happens to be, they'll have at least a few examples)

[LJ]

Carolina Ibarra, CEO of Pacifica Housing doesn’t want the incident to detract from the positive benefits of low-barrier supportive housing.

 

 

And just what would those benefits be? Oh, maybe she means the benefits she gets, not the public.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Matt R.]

I see Russell Hendrix is closing up shop there.

What business is that?

[Victoria Watcher]

Temporary housing will cost too much

 

https://www.timescol...prices-10676339

 

 

Re: “$32 million funding brings 187 ­temporary housing spaces to Nanaimo,” May 9.

 

The B.C. government is gloating about spending $32 million to build 187 tiny cubicles for troubled people in Nanaimo, but that works out to $171,000 each for these small temporary wooden lean-tos which look like garden sheds.

 

I could build the same structures for about $20,000 each, making a profit of $150,000 on each.

 

With the tax money being spent on building just a few of these sheds, a full-size, permanent home could be built.

 

Stop the celebrating. Who is getting the huge taxpayer windfall on this?

 

 

Ben Vries

Nanaimo

 

 

 

 

https://www.nanaimob...nanaimo-7998305

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 May 2025 - 01:32 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Fifty single-room modular homes are opening soon to people experiencing homelessness in Nanaimo as they transition from the shelter system. 

 

[...]

 

The province, through B.C. Housing, provided $5.5 million to build the units, as well as $167,000 in one-time start-up funding and $2.3 million in annual operating dollars. The site is intended to be temporary but will be in place for at least three years. 

 

 

https://www.nanaimob...nanaimo-7998305

 

 

 

 

 

$46,000 per unit for operating costs.  $3,833 per month, per unit.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 May 2025 - 01:48 AM.

[Barrister]

YOU CAN RENT ONE BEDROOM CONDOS FOR LESS THAN 3K 

[Victoria Watcher]

Manak told the Times Colonist at the time that the department supports measures that enhance safety and accountability at supportive-housing buildings, and prohibiting weapons in these facilities is “a common-sense approach.

“Unfortunately, we know from experience that individuals involved in criminal activity often seek to embed themselves in vulnerable communities, using these environments to exploit residents and perpetuate harm,” Manak said.

In some cases, residents arm themselves with various weapons for self-protection, creating a cycle of increased risk, he said. “This is simply unacceptable,” said Manak. “Taking steps to prevent weapons from entering these facilities is a critical part of protecting those who live and work there.”

Critics have said removing the rights of residents in supportive housing or evicting already vulnerable people and rendering them homeless is not the answer, and that improving safety and increasing security at such buildings is a better route.




https://www.timescol...r-help-10684041

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 May 2025 - 08:42 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Half a dozen fire trucks were on scene to deal with a wood-pile fire at the former Howard Johnson hotel in Nanaimo on Thursday.

Smoke and flames at the high-profile Nanaimo harbourfront property adjacent to Mafeo Sutton Park could be seen around 3:30 a.m. as firefighters raced to put out the flames.

Nanaimo Fire Rescue deputy fire chief Stuart Kenning said the fire was extinguished by 6 a.m., calling it “basically a spectacular looking bonfire” caused by the ignition of a stack of wood that had been gathered on site by demolition crews.

The live-in security person helped extinguish the fire by using an excavator to open up the fire and allow crews to reach the bottom of the wood pile.



https://www.timescol...sponse-10696750

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 May 2025 - 10:16 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Us taxpayers are already paying like $30,000 per month for security there.

[Lashlarue]

Victoria and Pandora ave are the subject of a special investigation piece in The Globe and Mail today -  https://www.theglobe...pandora-avenue/

 

'Pandora, with its wide, tree-lined boulevards, was once a lush gateway to the downtown from the east. But in the past decade, it has morphed into one of the largest open-air drug markets in Western Canada.

About a third of the storefronts are shuttered. Soup kitchens, charities and mom-and-pop pharmacies fill many of the rest. Half the people on the sidewalk are semi-conscious and bent over – the fentanyl fold, the pose is known. Blankets, cardboard and trash clutter the pavement.

“You see everything here – shootings, murders, overdoses, fires,” says Linda Hughes,who moved into her condo overlooking Pandora’s 900 block in 2010. “It used to be wonderful living here.” Now, she says, misery is the only constant.'

Edited by Lashlarue, 24 May 2025 - 08:29 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Sums it up:


City officials and social service agencies told The Globe the fundamental problem is a lack of supportive housing. Last fall, B.C.’s NDP government opened up enough shelter space to move the 70 to 80 people sleeping on Pandora indoors. The city contracted the non-profit Pacifica Housing to co-ordinate efforts. But nine months on, some 50 people still remain on the block, according to city estimates.

“I know that the community is really frustrated,” says Pacifica CEO Carolina Ibarra. “Everyone was offered shelter. Not everybody took us up on it.”

The problem isn’t a lack of housing, it’s that the population is “unhouseable,” says Sgt. Jeremy Preston with the Victoria Police Department. “The bar for supportive housing is pretty low – don’t light fires, don’t threaten the building manager – but for many, that’s still too high.”

[Victoria Watcher]

Or this:


Const. Wishlaw is frequently called to the buildings for violent standoffs, drug trafficking and weapons seizures. Earlier this week, police seized a kilogram of fentanyl, a loaded 9 mm gun and $40,000 in cash from a supportive housing facility just off Victoria’s scenic Inner Harbour.

He described a typical unit: “Imagine everything a person has in a street encampment. Now put all that inside a 300-sq. ft. room. You’re barely able to move. Even the bathrooms are full of stuff — so they don’t use their toilets, their sink. Everything feels sticky. There’s no air flow. It smells stale.”

Even Det. Insp. Conor King, a rock-ribbed supporter of harm reduction measures and safe supply, is having doubts. “Police have adopted very progressive drug policy, but it’s worse than ever, and we’re doing more than ever. How can we be optimistic?”

[aastra]

Does any media outlet ever dare to ask which big fish are running the show (and collecting most of the revenue) if the lowest-level street bozo is carrying tens of thousands* of dollars and armed to the teeth?

Even in a city the size of Victoria the total trade would seem to be worth billions per year. Remind me, how much influence could you buy with that?

[aastra]

*some news stories indicate the lowest guys are regularly handling hundreds of thousands or even millions

[Victoria Watcher]

The guy with thousands of dollars at the Cool Aid apartments gets his place paid for with $500 per month on the benefits welfare pays him. He effectively gets a free apartment from taxpayers, spending money to boot, then he also runs his drug trade.


Quite a system we run.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 May 2025 - 12:55 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The pandemic marked yet another downward turn for Pandora. In the years leading to 2020, the number of people sleeping rough in Victoria was relatively stable, at 25 to 35, according to city data. But in April, 2020, when shelters were forced to reduce capacity, the number of tents and shelters jumped to 465.

The B.C. government quickly bought three downtown Victoria hotels, moving 334 people into them. But in 2021, after the homeless count rose again, another 200 people were moved indoors.

Already, two of the leased hotels have been slated to close permanently due to recent fires, damage and disrepair. Then, in 2023, the number of people sheltering along Pandora started to climb again, leading to the current crisis.

To Const. Wishlaw, efforts to restore order on Pandora can feel like “shoveling water with a rake.”

Councillor Dave Thompson said that as soon as bylaw officers began moving people off Pandora, he started getting calls and complaints about street disorder from businesses and residents in other parts of the downtown. The dysfunction has become “the biggest problem that Victoria has,” Mr. Thompson says.

 

https://www.theglobe...pandora-avenue/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 May 2025 - 06:37 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Mike K.]

I think the “real” and “gritty” thing Hopper is referring to is a genuine aspiration. There are urbanists who celebrate urban grit like a pin on an urbanist’s neckerchief.

[Victoria Watcher]

The agency also took the lead in carrying out the biennial Point-in-Time Homeless Count and Survey in March. Final results are still being determined, but Cook said the number of homeless people in the region is up from the 1,665 identified in the last count in 2023.

 

https://www.timescol...dation-10697244