25959 replies to this topic

[Cassidy]

It would seem that the smart money might simply walk on by Mr. O'Donnell, as he's unable to get up out of his wheelchair, indeed unable to do anything at all that could be considered a "viable threat".

 

Key line in David's post above might be: "O'Donnell, cordial during a brief interview, said he's affected by head injuries and can't walk".

Perhaps Mr. O'Donnell isn't quite as in control of his verbalizations as one might initially assume he might be.

 

Regardless, Mr. O'Donnell is but a down on his luck, severely handicapped, homeless man who may very well be best served by either giving him some change, or ignoring him completely.

Edited by Cassidy, 31 March 2018 - 08:57 AM.

[mbjj]

I noticed yesterday a tent set up on the sidewalk near the intersection of Vancouver and Fort streets. Is this a thing now? Almost blocking a sidewalk with a tent? I thought a golden retriever was too big!

[Rob Randall]

^Is that outside Frontrunners? Sometimes they'll have special sponsored shoe events.

[VicHockeyFan]

^ Wrong block.

[tjv]

It would seem that the smart money might simply walk on by Mr. O'Donnell, as he's unable to get up out of his wheelchair, indeed unable to do anything at all that could be considered a "viable threat".

 

Key line in David's post above might be: "O'Donnell, cordial during a brief interview, said he's affected by head injuries and can't walk".

Perhaps Mr. O'Donnell isn't quite as in control of his verbalizations as one might initially assume he might be.

 

Regardless, Mr. O'Donnell is but a down on his luck, severely handicapped, homeless man who may very well be best served by either giving him some change, or ignoring him completely.

Who cares what a homeless person thinks?  I have to respect a person for their opinion to matter to me.  In this situation I think I would just have a good laugh as I continued walking.

 

Canada is the land of opportunity and if you can't make something good of yourself and you are simply pissed off at the world because you feel you are entitled to free handouts.  Then when someone doesn't give the handout you hurl insults at them you should go back under the rock you crawled out from under

[mbjj]

Near this stretch

 

https://www.google.c...!7i13312!8i6656

[skeptic]

Regardless, Mr. O'Donnell is but a down on his luck, severely handicapped, homeless man who may very well be best served by either giving him some change, or ignoring him completely.

I’ve got news for you. He’s not homeless, he travels by bus from his apartment to the downtown area to panhandle and take the occasional crack pipe break.

[Cassidy]

I’ve got news for you. He’s not homeless, he travels by bus from his apartment to the downtown area to panhandle and take the occasional crack pipe break.

I too have seen him on assorted buses around town over the years, and the article above clearly indicates that he had an apartment on Fisgard St. in the mid 90's.

 

But from the 2016 article David posted above:

"The men are well known to several agencies who help the homeless, but don’t appear to have a consistent outreach worker to find them shelter or housing"

 

... which would seem to indicate that he was indeed homeless in 2016.

 

If he does have an apartment in 2018, then I'm happy he has a brief respite from the streets in a warm and dry place.

O'Donnell clearly lives an incredibly difficult life regardless of where he sleeps.

 

But I don't believe that having an apartment (if he indeed has one) changes anything I posted earlier, in terms of either ignoring him completely, or giving him some change?

[Love the rock]

I too have seen him on assorted buses around town over the years, and the article above clearly indicates that he had an apartment on Fisgard St. in the mid 90's.
 
But from the 2016 article David posted above:
"The men are well known to several agencies who help the homeless, but don’t appear to have a consistent outreach worker to find them shelter or housing"
 
... which would seem to indicate that he was indeed homeless in 2016.
 
If he does have an apartment in 2018, then I'm happy he has a brief respite from the streets in a warm and dry place.
O'Donnell clearly lives an incredibly difficult life regardless of where he sleeps.
 
But I don't believe that having an apartment (if he indeed has one) changes anything I posted earlier, in terms of either ignoring him completely, or giving him some change?

One problem I see is often homelessness is a state of mind and a way of life .
It is an addiction and mental health issue.
Where as someone with a fully functioning brain would change their lifestyle this is often not the case .
You will never end homelessness we have to decide on
what is acceptable behaviour on our streets .

[VicHockeyFan]

So last night I'm walking along Douglas St., maybe 8pm.  A "homeless couple" have made themselves quite at home in the Dolce Vita doorway.

 

They were not just seeking shelter from rain or cold, they have made the entire place up like their own living room.  I did not sit right with me, I know how hard-working the Dolce owners are.

 

So I politely informed them that they did not have a right to occupy that doorway.  The male ar first suggested he did, and he knew the owner.  I asked him what the owner's name was, he failed that simple test.

 

Then he said if I did not stop "harassing" them, he'd call the cops, he showed me his phone.  I politely suggested maybe he should make that call and then we can sort things out. He declined that offer.

 

Anyway, so a few more times he got right into my face and yelled at me to stop "hating on the homeless" or something.  He had no weapon in his hand and I was, let me tell you, ready to strike him back it he tried to bare-hand hit me, and it was not going to go well for him.

 

Anyway, I left them be, and turned up Yates while calling the VicPD non-emergency number, that I have in my head.

 

When I got near my next stop, I stopped on the sidewalk to finish the call.  Then another younger guy, that may or may not have seen me on Douglas approaches and he's screaming at me, while I'm on the line to the dispatcher.  He's upset that I'm reporting the squatter, and has some choice words for me.

 

Anyway, he went away, I'm not sure if and when the cops showed up to deal with Douglas St.

 

But this is the attitude on the streets now.    No respect for private property and people camping at any time, day and night.   And it's all because we allow it, we think it's the new normal.  It's a crappy thing for this city.  And it's all illegal activity that nobody bothers to police, so it propagates. 

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 08 April 2018 - 07:48 AM.

[Mike K.]

To think a small city like Victoria has fostered an attitude towards simple lawlessness like you’d see in Chicago or NYC, where the police really do have bigger fish to fry.

Be careful, VHF, most of these guys carry shanks of some kind. I saw a guy yesterday pushing a shopping cart who had poorly disguised scissors at the ready.

[Rob Randall]

I may have mentioned this earlier but I once discovered a couple camping in an alcove at my building. They had made a little living space in front of the fire hose connection. I decided they were doing no harm and let them be. The next morning the brass caps from the connector were missing. I was so mad.

[VicHockeyFan]

Ya, I was careful.

 

Look, one out of every 500 or 1000 people is homeless, right?  A homeless "couple", stats say that has to be one in 10,000.  To me that's just a way of life, not two down-on-their-luck people. At the absolute minimum a couple earns $1,420 per month on income assistance, likely more if one or more claims a disabled benefit.  We've already covered in this space that food, clothing, medicine and transport can be arranged for free.

 

I saw three very young people camping down at the closed up surf shop on lower Herald St. the other day.  Three!  Two males and a female.  And the female was decent looking.  That's just a way of life.  And there they are camping at like 11am.        

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 08 April 2018 - 08:14 AM.

[Nparker]

...a few more times he got right into my face and yelled at me to stop "hating on the homeless" or something...

I think this is one aspect of the current homeless "crisis" that upsets me the most. Respecting private - and even public property - is not hating on the homeless. Respect is a two-way street. If you are not going to show it to others, don't expect to get it in return. As has been written about ad infinitum, there are many agencies in our city offering to help people who are experiencing homelessness, but people have to be willing to accept that these services likely come with rules. I think for many who are living on the street abiding by anyone's rules is something they just don't want to do.

[VicHockeyFan]

So last night I'm walking along Douglas St., maybe 8pm.  A "homeless couple" have made themselves quite at home in the Dolce Vita doorway.

 

They were not just seeking shelter from rain or cold, they have made the entire place up like their own living room.  I did not sit right with me, I know how hard-working the Dolce owners are.

 

So I politely informed them that they did not have a right to occupy that doorway.  The male ar first suggested he did, and he knew the owner.  I asked him what the owner's name was, he failed that simple test.

 

Then he said if I did not stop "harassing" them, he'd call the cops, he showed me his phone.  I politely suggested maybe he should make that call and then we can sort things out. He declined that offer.

 

Anyway, so a few more times he got right into my face and yelled at me to stop "hating on the homeless" or something.  He had no weapon in his hand and I was, let me tell you, ready to strike him back it he tried to bare-hand hit me, and it was not going to go well for him.

 

Anyway, I left them be, and turned up Yates while calling the VicPD non-emergency number, that I have in my head.

 

When I got near my next stop, I stopped on the sidewalk to finish the call.  Then another younger guy, that may or may not have seen me on Douglas approaches and he's screaming at me, while I'm on the line to the dispatcher.  He's upset that I'm reporting the squatter, and has some choice words for me.

 

Anyway, he went away, I'm not sure if and when the cops showed up to deal with Douglas St.

 

But this is the attitude on the streets now.    No respect for private property and people camping at any time, day and night.   And it's all because we allow it, we think it's the new normal.  It's a crappy thing for this city.  And it's all illegal activity that nobody bothers to police, so it propagates. 

 

Full marks to the female dispatcher too.  By the way, is there such thing as a male dispatcher, in my whole life I've never spoken to one.  She was excellent and even when the guy is screaming at me on Yates, she's giving me pointers in making myself safe from that clown too.

 

"Can you move to a place where he does not have you cornered, is there anyone else on the street now that can assist?" etc.  Very well done.

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 08 April 2018 - 08:49 AM.

[tjv]

Be careful, VHF, most of these guys carry shanks of some kind. I saw a guy yesterday pushing a shopping cart who had poorly disguised scissors at the ready.

I would agree, you never know what state of mind these guys are in or are they high on something.

 

I am surprised a body like the Downtown Victoria Business Association doesn't have blanket direction for all members to the police that if they catch someone sleeping in a doorway that is trespassing and for that person to be arrested on the spot.  Everyone who sees what VHF saw should call the Victoria Police non emergency number.  imagine if they got 50 calls for every incident they wouldn't ignore it

 

if the CofV wants people from the suburbs to go downtown with lots of cash to spend, they better do a lot better job of making it an inviting place.  Very little of my money gets spent downtown anymore

[VicHockeyFan]

It's very simple, you either have a note from the property owner, or you do not camp on private property.  How is that hard to enforce and/or why don't we? We have rules against sitting on the sidewalk, again, we ignore them.  Yesterday there is a guy sprawled out right at the entry to Bastion Square, with not one but two full-sized dogs, one with a muzzle on.  

 

And back to the campers on Herald, the coffee shop is doing itself no favours by not asking those people to move on.

[Nparker]

...We have rules against sitting on the sidewalk, again, we ignore them...

Unless you're an elderly golden retriever.

Edited by Nparker, 08 April 2018 - 09:41 AM.

[tjv]

It's very simple, you either have a note from the property owner, or you do not camp on private property. 

True, but I don't even think police did anything 30 years ago unless someone filed a complaint.  I remember 10 years ago that shop owners would put signs like "no trespassing or loitering" etc in their windows and I think that gave the police carte blanche to do something about it.

 

Here is the thing, unless citizens are actively complaining then the issue will get swept under the rug.  I can only imagine if citizens got together and started picketing around tent city that something would have happened.  The problem is today the vast majority of people just think that its the City's problem

[VicHockeyFan]

I find it disappointing that some businesses do nothing.  

 

A tale of two (or more) property owners:

 

Walk along Douglas from Broughton to Humboldt, on the east side.  You will find that the credit union and The Victoria Foundation allow people to sit against their walls, while the Strathcona absolutely does not tolerate it.  And in the next block the Falls and their commercial tenants do nothing about panhandlers there.

 

Is the Strath magic? No, they are just vigilant and unforgiving, beg along there and you will get a police visit, 100%.  Now the panhandlers know this, and it's very rarely an issue.  

Edited by VicHockeyFan, 08 April 2018 - 10:36 AM.