25965 replies to this topic

[On the Level]

Exactly. Nor is it Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, or Prince George's problem. This is a national issue & should be handled as such at that level.

 

Agreed....and handled holistically.  Social justice special interests are going to end up causing a massive backlash which will make it less likely that federal politicians will champion policies to help the homeless.

[spanky123]

Exactly. Nor is it Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Regina, Saskatoon, Calgary, or Prince George's problem. This is a national issue & should be handled as such at that level.

 

The question is, is it a problem at all or has Victoria manufactured it?

 

I housing and food were not free, if laws were enforced and if drugs were not widely accepted would nearly  as many people be out camping and destroying property? We have established an experiment and asked if we give people the necessities of life and freedom to make whatever choice they want, will they attempt to better themselves? The answer is a resounding no. We just keep running the same experiment over and over again because 1. the Government continues to fund it through UVIC and other groups and 2. we hope that we get a different answer to support lifetimes of papers and teachings.

[GetLisaSomeHelps]

It's obviously not a black & white issue.

 

As for the homeless population: There's a large% that deserve to be locked up in either jail or institutions for those requiring mental support (is this a PC way enough to say loony bin?), but there's also a % of people who fell on tough times. Filtering & connecting who needs what supports is the hard part and I don't trust any municipality to figure that out.

[Victoria Watcher]

the “hard times” line is a fallacy.

those that fall on hard times have family and work and friends support. then they recover.

those that have none of the non-government support above have addiction or mental health issues. or both.

[GetLisaSomeHelps]

the “hard times” line is a fallacy.

those that fall on hard times have family and work and friends support. then they recover.

those that have none of the non-government support above have addiction or mental health issues. or both.

 

so having addiction or mental health issues doesn't count as hard times? ok boomer.

[spanky123]

Looks like cleanup, bylaw and parks costs for the varies tent cities have cost the City $850K more than budgeted thus far. Note that instead of cutting costs to cover it, the proposal is just to steal more money from reserves.

 

Of course the cleanup hasn't happened yet either. Pandora "camping grounds" are just fenced off and damage to Beacon Hill and other parks is yet to be determined.

 

https://pub-victoria...ocumentId=57306

Edited by spanky123, 31 July 2020 - 03:19 PM.

[Nparker]

...We just keep running the same experiment over and over again [and] we hope that we get a different answer...

The very definition of insanity.

[A Girl is No one]

The park is really starting to remind me of the court house tent city. Piling garbage, tents everywhere. Breaks my heart.

Our friend Shae from the call on Sunday now has a fenced yard around his tent. So suburban!

[Victoria Watcher]

for the surprising amount of homeless people that like to collect mounds of junk do they do that because they ha e the room for it now? or is their desire to accumulate junk one of the things that makes them hard to house?

[laconic]

In the mean time, the mayor would like to get rid of those unsightly newspaper boxes on downtown streets. Nothing like priorities.

[Victoria Watcher]

I don’t see any good reason to let the newspaper boxes stay on public property. or stay for free anyway.

having said that aren’t they pretty scarce nowadays anyway? I have trouble finding a Monday magazine.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 01 August 2020 - 07:11 AM.

[mbjj]

There are usually Monday Magazines in the row of boxes by the downtown library. I like the boxes and frequently pick up something from them. Think there are some boxes in Cook St. Village and near The Market on Yates.

 

Talk about accumulating junk, that area by Wellburns, wow. We were in the car and I watched as a lady walking a dog almost had to step into the road to get around it. Looks like some sort of black mattress is shielding part of it off. Also written on the wall is Yank Go Home, I think, something close to it anyways.

[Rob Randall]

^Are you sure it didn't say, "Go home, yank"?

 

There are still a couple of tents and tarped enclosures on the sidewalk near Our Place. The Alix Goolden Hall property is fenced off and surrounded by loiterers and their piles of junk. The boulevards remain fenced off, overgrown and untended and contribute to the war-zone vibe.

[pennymurphy2000]

Yes, the Mayor definitely has a firm grasp on the most pressing issues plaguing downtown Victoria. 

In order for newspaper boxes to be at the top of the list of things that might cause visitors to infer that downtown Victoria is messy one would need to overlook the following:

 

- huge amounts of stolen property, assorted tents, bikes etc littering our sidewalks

- large groups of people hanging around outside Our Place

- needles all over the place

- panhandlers lining Blanshard Street

- tents scattered all over Beacon Hill Park

- numerous intoxicated people wandering into traffic around Our Place

- people sleeping in doorways of downtown businesses

- clearly mentally ill people screaming at people walking by

- people brandishing weapons

- non stop sirens downtown

 

The list goes on and on and on. Yes, no doubt that cleaning out those unsightly newspaper boxes will fix everything.  

 

Explain to me again why anyone voted for this woman? 

[JimV]

Don’t forget her heroic decision to sic the bylaw officers on the Cook Street village merchants.  Some of them actually had signs that were a little too big and too prominently displayed.  Outrageous!  The public were clamouring for action on that issue.  In fairness, the bylaw officers were so busy not enforcing bylaws in the park they needed something else to do.

[Nparker]

The CoV's neglect of the Pandora war zone is disgusting, but yeah, it's newspaper boxes that are giving the downtown a bad vibe.

[Awaiting Juno]

Here's the thing that's bugging me, the lack of a clear strategy to make things better.  Everything is a bandaid.  There's no clear data on the issues - and there's neglect to consider consequences of actions.  As a result, well-intentioned measures have led to even bigger problems.  With the amount of resources that have been put into this problem - Victoria should not have a homeless problem.  However, the resources have been squandered and mismanaged.  The council has been captured by activists who are perhaps too close to the problem to understand the limits of solutions. To many activists the answer is a person with a housing isn't homeless.  However, this neglects that the physical structure of housing isn't what makes a home - there's an entire "ecosystem" that's needed and unless that ecosystem is healthy, being housed might just promote and enable the dysfunction that led to the loss of housing in the first place.  For some people accessing support and housing in other cities might be far healthier than remaining in Victoria and maintaining a set of dysfunctional relationships.

[Victoria Watcher]

but they all say “housing first” is the solution. then with the ability to sober or find a job and the other contacts they get for solving their issues then they will move on and better themselves.

but there is no indication this ever happens.

[spanky123]

It is not rocket science, Mayor Krog in Nanaimo solved the problem. When was the last time you heard about homeless people overwhelming resources there?

 

If you want free housing and free food then you need to do something in return, make an effort to improve your standing. Get treatment, get training, get support. It is not too much to ask, it is not like folks don't have free time on their hands.

 

Looks like many in Nanaimo decided that it wasn't a fair trade however and have found their way here. Seems like a reasonable explanation as to why, after 400+ free homes are provided, the number of 'homeless' in Victoria has remained the same.

[pennymurphy2000]

The CoV's neglect of the Pandora war zone is disgusting, but yeah, it's newspaper boxes that are giving the downtown a bad vibe.

Has the Mayor not stated several times that she cycles down Pandora Avenue every day? She has no issues with anything she has seen on Pandora Avenue? Nothing? Every inch of green space on Pandora is currently surrounded by ugly fencing. There is a huge pile of chattel outside Wellburns this am. People walking around in various states of undress, including several with no shoes. We had to run an errand in town this am and it is like driving though parts of East LA.