They've tried so hard to cement the notion re: location being especially crucial when addressing homelessness or addiction, even though there might be no other aspect of human affairs for which location/location/location could be less relevant. I've already made the analogy re: providing water in downtown Victoria in order to help people who are dying of thirst out in the desert. What message are you sending with that program?
This continues to be one of the big cues re: the political falseness of it all. Only the politics requires everything to be concentrated and centralized and highly visible. If you were sincerely trying to help people, centralization and visibility and choice locations would obviously be irrelevant.
If you're homeless then you need a home. You don't need a home in downtown Victoria or in some specific neighbourhood. If you're addicted then you need your addiction to be addressed. You don't need your addiction to be addressed in downtown Victoria or in some specific neighbourhood.
There's a heaping dose of "rubbing your face in it" with this emphasis on location. Every homeless person should have the right to be housed in downtown Victoria! Okay... so should every non-homeless person also have the right to be housed in downtown Victoria? Of course not, don't be stupid. Go to Toronto if living in a downtown apartment is so important to you.
Hey, did you hear the Oak Bay Lodge is going to be turned into homeless housing?
I'm in favour! Everyone should be allowed to live in Oak Bay.
My mistake, I meant the Oak Bay Lodge is going to be turned into rental apartments.
I'm opposed! I don't want those renters living in Oak Bay.
(I should say, getting the other municipalities involved would be an essential piece of the puzzle if we were sincere with this effort to address homelessness. I've made this point many times. But 238 beds at a single site in little Oak Bay? Do these people really have no grasp whatsoever of proportionality? How many beds should Saanich have? 2,000? How many beds should Greater Victoria have? 6,000?)