26028 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

I've put together some numbers.

 

Since 2010 there have been thousands of purpose-built rental units added to the Capital Region's housing stock, including 700-units in the affordable/subsidized/supportive realm with many hundreds more slated for occupancy by 2019. 1,700 rental apartments are currently under construction and thousands more are planned. This data destabilizes the notion that due to a lack of rental housing, camping in Victoria's parks has doubled over a 12 month period.

[Nparker]

I've put together some numbers.

I hope you'll share this with the CoV Council Mike, in case not all of them are followers of VV! 

[LJ]

To be fair, adding 1000+ units of $1200+/month rental units isn't exactly going to take the pressure off the need for housing people who aren't holding down jobs paying $50K or so a year.

The vast majority of homeless people here are not holding down any job, thus there is no reason for them to be in Victoria at all. But give them free housing and meals and services and watch them flood in. We are incentivieing them to come here rather than strongly encouraging them to stay wherever they are.

[VicHockeyFan]

Some of them are holding down panhandling jobs for extra cash.  Some of those also are opposed to early-evening check-ins at shelters as it precludes them panning to the drunk bar crowd.

[Awaiting Juno]

I've started a petition asking that standard needles no longer be distributed and that needles that are distributed include passive features that prevent needle stick injuries and needle reuse.  https://www.change.o...eedle-use-in-bc

[Kungsberg]

Article in today's Times Colonist regarding acting Victoria police chief's comments to Council yesterday regarding overnight sleeping in cars:

 

 

Don't change rules to let people sleep in cars: acting Victoria police chief

 

Times Colonist, June 9, 2017

http://www.timescolo...hief-1.20496634

 

… Police and bylaw officers should be able to decide whether to ticket people for sleeping in cars, acting Victoria Police Chief Del Manak told councillors Thursday.

 

Mayor Lisa Helps and Coun. Chris Coleman had proposed that council approve an exemption to the city’s streets and traffic bylaw so tickets would not be issued to people sleeping in cars parked on the street when the city’s vacancy rate falls below three per cent. The rate is currently about 0.5 per cent.

 

But Manak recommended to councillors that the bylaw not be changed.

 

…….

 

“I think whether it’s the police or whether it’s bylaw officers, we exercise a tremendous amount of discretion and that discretion is properly applied,” Manak said.

 

“What I’d like council to consider is it gives you an opportunity to enforce the bylaw because there may be cases where you want to do that.”

 …..

 

Coun. Ben Isitt proposed an amendment to the streets and traffic bylaw to remove the prohibition against sleeping in vehicles. It failed, as it wasn’t seconded.

Helps said she wanted more time to examine the issue.

“I’m not going to drop this. I just want time to look at it, given the new information,” she said.

[VicHockeyFan]

Of course Helps does not want to drop it. She'd be admitting she's wrong! That's not her style.

[Nparker]

The T-C finally did a follow-up story to the CCH shooting incident. I guess the local SJWs couldn't keep this under wraps any longer. It's nice to see someone agrees with me that the solution to homelessness doesn't happen simply by warehousing people in low-barrier shelters.

...Sacca said she is sympathetic to those who are homeless or addicted, but those living in the building need better supports. “It’s not just finding a shelter for people. I think the shelter has to go hand in hand with the level of support that’s necessary for the residents,” she said...

- See more at: http://www.timescolo...h.baxZ0skc.dpuf

 

...Andy Bond, of PHS Community Services Society, which operates the building,... “We share everybody’s concern for the person who was affected by the incident — it’s very unfortunate,”... “Obviously what the [shooter] did was wrong and potentially very dangerous.” Bond said staff will look into whether the shooter was having a mental-health crisis...

- See more at: http://www.timescolo...h.baxZ0skc.dpuf

Really? You mean there's a chance that a person shooting a pellet gun into a public street in the middle of the day might not be having a mental health crisis? Is anyone in the "industry" willing to admit that low-barrier shelters simply do not work?

[spanky123]

Of course Helps does not want to drop it. She'd be admitting she's wrong! That's not her style.

 

As we suspected here, the police don't actually ticket people for sleeping in cars. A red herring designed to bring the conversation back to homelessness and away from the other pressing issues in the City.

[VicHockeyFan]

As we suspected here, the police don't actually ticket people for sleeping in cars. A red herring designed to bring the conversation back to homelessness and away from the other pressing issues in the City.

 

This whole thing is odd.  It was brought up because Coleman etc., said they had seen the number of tickets written, then Manak says they have issued zero in the last 3 years.

[Daveyboy]

The T-C finally did a follow-up story to the CCH shooting incident. I guess the local SJWs couldn't keep this under wraps any longer. It's nice to see someone agrees with me that the solution to homelessness doesn't happen simply by warehousing people in low-barrier shelters.

 

Really? You mean there's a chance that a person shooting a pellet gun into a public street in the middle of the day might not be having a mental health crisis? Is anyone in the "industry" willing to admit that low-barrier shelters simply do not work?

It is good to know that, although police call-outs have doubled since this "low-barrier housing" opened, only slightly more than half of those call-outs are for criminal behaviour.

That is a very reassuring statistic if I ever read one..........  

[Nparker]

It is good to know that, although police call-outs have doubled since this "low-barrier housing" opened, only slightly more than half of those call-outs are for criminal behaviour...

Didn't you know, non-criminal police call-outs are free to the taxpayer?

Edited by Nparker, 11 June 2017 - 12:16 PM.

[VicHockeyFan]

Didn't you know, non-criminal police call-outs are free to the taxpayer?

 

We should contract out all 844 calls to Saanich like OB does, and if they are non-criminal in nature, Saanich can't charge us.

[VicHockeyFan]

In April, when Mayor Lisa Helps and Coun. Chris Coleman floated the idea of changing city bylaws to allow people to legally sleep in their cars, the proposal was partly based on statistics that showed the number of tickets issued had nearly doubled from 80 in 2014 to 176 last year.

This, they maintained, was an indicator of the lack of affordable housing options and record low rental vacancy rates in Victoria.

But a report by acting Victoria Police Chief Del Manak and city manager of bylaws Nancy Johnston has clarified the numbers and at least for the moment, put on hold a proposal to let people sleep in their vehicles if the vacancy rate remains below three per cent – it’s currently 0.5 per cent.

Manak reported that VicPD has written no tickets for the offence in the past three years, and stressed that his officers always exercise discretion when enforcing the laws. Police and bylaw officers need the right to decide whether to ticket people based on the circumstances, he added.

 

 

Johnston reiterated the chief’s concern with the change and noted that the vast majority of tickets issued involved recreational vehicles and campers parked illegally on city streets.

“We’ve responded to a lot of calls about people sleeping in cars and we’ve issued a grand total of three tickets. We already exercise considerable discretion and consideration. No one has to tell us to do it; we’re doing it,” she said.

 

http://www.vicnews.c...ehicles-report/

[Nparker]

This Council has never let facts get in the way of their decisions before; why start now?

[rmpeers]

This Council has never let facts get in the way of their decisions before; why start now?

To me this just confirms suspicion that the whole sleeping in cars crisis was nothing more than a diversionary tactic by the mayor to distract from the Elsner fiasco.

Wonder if this bit of misdirection was devised by the spin doctor the police board chairs allegedly hired using money that was earmarked for actual policing?

[Mike K.]

It may be have been, but I believe it was Coleman who brought the idea forward. He said he had been in conversation with a woman at his church or affiliated with his church who said she slept in her vehicle. Something to that degree.

[VicHockeyFan]

So up in Duncan they have put on a bus to take middle-school kids between the two campuses, a distance of 500m, that they just used to walk (in 10 minutes).

 

 

A 14-year-old girl reported that she was sexually assaulted on Thursday in the area of James Street and York Road on her way to school.

Police say the allegation was treated seriously and investigated thoroughly and it was proven that it did not take place.

A 40-year-old Duncan man was arrested and later released without charge. Police have not said why he was implicated.

The area in question remains a concern due to drug use and homelessness. The school district added a new bus service for students who usually walk between two school campuses and they say it will remain through next year.

 

http://vancouverisla...e-say-1.3451490

 

But in Victoria, we set up a homeless shelter 18m from an elementary school.

 

So instead of dealing with the "street issues" on York St., we will drive the kids through in protected by a bus in daylight hours, as it's so dangerous.  Brutal.  I think it might be cheaper to have a beat-cop walk the run all day, rather than paying for a bus and operator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 12 June 2017 - 10:39 AM.

[spanky123]

^ They set up a bus after the report that a 14 year old was sexually assaulted on her way to school. They have kept the bus (for now) even though the report was later determined to be fabricated.

[VicHockeyFan]

^ They set up a bus after the report that a 14 year old was sexually assaulted on her way to school. They have kept the bus (for now) even though the report was later determined to be fabricated.

 

Indeed.  And they will keep the bus on permanently.