28232 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

She’s just as bad. Or worse.

[Victoria Watcher]

“This is a huge success to celebrate, and to come across the ability to set up shop in Parksville is something we never thought we’d have Mayor O’Brien vote on,” says Day.

Parksville council has agreed to provide a letter of support for the project to BC Housing, which would fund the 10-bed dry winter shelter, that would open by October.

“Not just a mat and a sock, and a bowl of soup, more of an environment to change. That’s what we’re going to build here. Timeline – it opens in October, placement – unsure. Goal is to the end of April. So its a huge six-month extent so it will be open every night with 10 mats, filled every night, with a waiting list for sure,” says Day.  

Parksville senior Sandy Tyers says she is growing insecure in her own housing, as affordability slips away.

https://cheknews.ca/...helter-1325823/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 May 2026 - 06:09 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

A commentary by the mayor of Victoria.

On any given day in Victoria, when it comes to community safety, two truths can exist at once.

In our city, there are different perspectives, priorities and challenges when it comes to complex issues like housing, street disorder, drug use and crime.

At the heart of the issue is a tension between compassion and public order. As mayor, it is my job to hear everyone and find a balanced way forward.

If we are honest about community safety, we begin with a common understanding: The status quo was not working, and Victoria cannot be the only answer to challenges that belong to the whole region.

Our city already hosts 82 per cent of the region’s supportive housing, 92 per cent of its shelter spaces and the majority of street services, which have been centralized in the downtown core over many years.

Municipal government does not control housing, health care, social services, addiction treatment or income support for our residents — gaps in which contribute to social inequity and disorder.

 

 

https://www.timescol...alance-12314050

 

 

 

Our city already hosts 82 per cent of the region’s supportive housing, 92 per cent of its shelter spaces and the majority of street services, which have been centralized in the downtown core over many years.

 

 

This is ALL of your choosing.   And you just opened yet another in Rock Bay.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 May 2026 - 04:57 AM.

[Mike K.]

Victoria imported this disaster. None of the other municipalities laid out the red carpet for people from across Canada.

But other communities in the CRD are experiencing the effects of Victoria’s open arms policies, through crime, encampments and impacts from drug use at the hands of people who relocated to the south Island to access social services and take advantage of lax drug policies.

[dasmo]

The tension between compassion and public order. That’s from a marketing perspective. That is not what’s going on. It’s that there is no real compassion for the people or the community. They are using people’s compassion to engineer consent for all they have done to this point and that sentence is doing the same thing in an attempt to engineer consent to bring their expansion plans to the CRD.

Compassion should be there for people down on their luck, the addicted, the poor. Compassion should be there for the people living downtown and the businesses downtown, for the regional economy that the city anchors. Public disorder is the enemy to all of the above. Public drug use, intoxication, defecation, vandalism, intimidation, theft, assault and murder are not at odds with compassion.

Edited by dasmo, 22 May 2026 - 05:28 AM.

[Mike K.]

Never forget how the CRD’s Point in Time counts attempted to hide the origin of Victoria’s homeless individuals, coming up with their own metrics for what would be determined as a “local” person. The messaging from the early days of the agenda was that this was a made-in-Victoria problem that needed solutions, and not solutions working to construct a problem.

[LJ]

If there was any real compassion for the "homeless" they would mostly be institutionalized and weaned off drugs.

 

This is just NGOs telling you to be compassionate so they can make more money from more helpless individuals.

[Victoria Watcher]

First occupants move into new Rock Bay referral-only shelter

Spaces in the Bridge Street facility are offered on a referral basis to people who are ready for more stable, long-term housing.

https://www.timescol...helter-12313764



There is a very long list of why this is a terrible set-up.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 May 2026 - 05:31 AM.

[Mike K.]

The scene downtown yesterday was as bad as it ever was.

The moment I got off the bus at the Bay Centre, there were groups of people sitting on the sidewalk right in the path of disembarking passengers. Can’t we figure that out? Stepping over panhandlers just to get off the bus should not be the first thing you experience as you arrive in the city.

At city hall, a group of people were huddled together adjacent to the north side of the building right at Douglas, smoking fentanyl and negotiating a drug deal.

Even up at Mayfair which once before was a respite from the intensity of the city centre’s melee, the bus stop along Douglas had smashed glass and the area had a rough-edge tone to it.

Whoever recently said the city’s core looks like a war zone is right. It’s jarring, and I cannot see evidence of any progress to clean up the streets, as it were.

[UDeMan]

Just wait to see it on May 27, social assistance cheque day. Starting on Tuesday night it will be zombie city and ambulances coming and going like a war zone. I am sure the paramedics double staff that week.

[Victoria Watcher]

First occupants move into new Rock Bay referral-only shelter

Spaces in the Bridge Street facility are offered on a referral basis to people who are ready for more stable, long-term housing.

https://www.timescol...helter-12313764



There is a very long list of why this is a terrible set-up.

 

 

If the guests were disciplined soldiers, this might work for a short period.

 

But we are talking homeless people, and nearly 95% of them have drug or mental health issues, or both.  Many have physical issues.

 

Now, a person will need to get up in the night sometimes, to use the washroom.   Which requires a trip outside, by the way.

 

Now, people also fart, snore, talk and yell.  Masterbate.  Use a phone or tablet.  Or are generally restless.  Imagine being on the lower bunk with a person that has issues above you.  And they are climbing up and down the ladder all the time.

 

Housekeeping is also very hard with bunk beds.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 May 2026 - 10:12 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Residents are provided with lockers to store their belongings, as well as additional storage in a nearby garage, where bikes can be accommodated. Pets and guests are not allowed.

 

 

Private security has been contracted by the city to patrol outside from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m.

 

 

There needs to be a curfew, for all except valid work reasons.   If there was a curfew there would be no need for the outdoor patrol.  Imagine your bunk-mate coming and going at all times of the day and night.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 May 2026 - 10:15 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

It’s the first time Connective has operated a referral-only shelter, and its first facility in the capital region. The non-profit manages 1,500 units of housing across B.C. and the Yukon, including supportive and affordable housing as well as shelter space, and has about 1,100 employees.

 

 

1,100 employees for only 1,500 beds.  So even before calculating business, maintennce, utility and food costs, every guest costs you over $30,000/year just in staff costs.

[Victoria Watcher]

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 May 2026 - 10:18 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

The shelter will be staffed by a minimum of three workers at all times, Connective says.

 

 

 

 

 

So for 36 guests, we have 2,160 hours per month for staff wages, at least.   @ $30/hour that's $64,800/mo. or $1,800 per guest.  That does not include the building, maintenance, meals.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 May 2026 - 10:24 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Residents will receive a cold breakfast and two hot meals a day, provided in partnership with Cool Aid Society.

 

 

Why does this keep creeping up?   A decade ago, no meals were provided in shelters.  You go to the local soup kitchen.  

 

Then we started hearing about 2 meals per day, now we see 3.

[Victoria Watcher]

The shelter has $6 million to operate for three years from a B.C. Housing program intended to tackle homeless encampments across the province.

 

 

 

 

 

That's $55,555 per guest per year.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 May 2026 - 10:25 AM.

[max.bravo]

Mike, you weren’t kidding. I just drove down pandora from cook to government. It’s as bad as it ever was, maybe worse. It looks genuinely post apocalyptic, especially with all the construction fencing and tarps and bicycles and zombies. Yikes.

[Mike K.]

My colleague with whom I met yesterday says Pandora and now Johnson are both bad streets now. Then you have Queens, too.

[LJ]

Victoria imported this disaster. None of the other municipalities laid out the red carpet for people from across Canada.

But other communities in the CRD are experiencing the effects of Victoria’s open arms policies, through crime, encampments and impacts from drug use at the hands of people who relocated to the south Island to access social services and take advantage of lax drug policies.

Is there anyone else running for mayor this year? How about council?