25959 replies to this topic

[Midnightly]

Today via the DRA, with data from the Downtown Victoria Business Association.

 

Improperly discarded needles have tripled since roughly around the 2014 election, and graffiti "tags" have quadrupled.

 

 

hrmm.. i wonder there is a connection between this and the change of mayor and city council in 2014 and the choices they made.. like welcoming the homeless and low barrier housing in the downtown core, the lax enforcement on some issues.. and the long lasting tent city on the courthouse lawns

 

and if that lax enforcement has brought us to the place where we are at today where the police are stretched thin

Edited by Midnightly, 30 January 2019 - 06:12 PM.

[martini]

[quote name="RFS" post="477436" timestamp="1548891386"]

“People complaining about downtown are just fear mongers”

https://www.gofundme...mikeskidneyklub

54 year old landscaper pricked with a needle while working downtown and gets HIV[/quote
Jesus is right. Had no idea. :( Do we have any update? Is the Gofundme still active?

[Midnightly]

[quote name="RFS" post="477436" timestamp="1548891386"]

“People complaining about downtown are just fear mongers”

https://www.gofundme...mikeskidneyklub

54 year old landscaper pricked with a needle while working downtown and gets HIV[/quote
Jesus is right. Had no idea. :( Do we have any update? Is the Gofundme still active?

 

 

i'm pretty sure he was on c-fax today, i remember listening to his story this afternoon, if it is the same man, he did get his transplant back in October, and spent a few months in Vancouver before coming back to Victoria just before christmas..

[Victoria Watcher]

John Stossel video on san francisco homelessness

https://reason.com/r...homeless-crisis

san francisco weekly takes issue with it:

http://www.sfweekly....n-homelessness/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 February 2019 - 08:04 PM.

[Nparker]

Not surprisingly, dear comrade Ben feels it's better to spend my municipal tax dollars on the few whose bahaviour necessitates constant public intervention, rather than the many who simply want to enjoy the parks they pay for.

...Coun. Ben Isitt suggested reducing the $365,000 budget for park-camping cleanup in order to allocate more resources to supporting the most vulnerable. “I would rather target the resources there and accept a potentially slightly lower level of service in the parks in terms of the impacts associated with sheltering,”...

https://www.timescol...told-1.23629238

Is it any wonder I despise this man?

[Victoria Watcher]

thornton joes statement that it’s always been that way is not much of s statement.

young is on the right track. provide enough shelter beds and then nobody can be in parks.

our place has gone from prohibiting drug use to fully accepting it over the years.

[Mike K.]

The other day on CFAX a statement was made that despite the cold weather shelter beds are going unused, and at a large rate, too.

Let’s face it. Camping in parks is no longer tethered to shelter bed availability and likely never was.

[zoomer]

Unfortunately this council won’t enforce a camping ban even though you’d have to think it would now stand up in court if there are shelter beds available. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the courts took it a step further and declared that shelter beds are insufficient.

Have to give credit to Horgan and company, their efforts seem to be making a difference. More importantly their aggressive action of scooping up nearly completed buildings for social housing should help avoid concentrating social/addiction issues in run down buildings and within the city core. Helps and council are trying to solve homelessness all on their own at Victoria’s expense, thank goodness the Province is stepping in and providing housing across the region.

[Nparker]

...Helps and council are trying to solve homelessness all on their own at Victoria’s expense...

That's what Lisa and her merry band of SJWs seem to forget. Housing is a provincial responsibility; parks are the city's to maintain. It seems pretty obvious where Victoria should be spending its money.

[spanky123]

Unfortunately this council won’t enforce a camping ban even though you’d have to think it would now stand up in court if there are shelter beds available. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the courts took it a step further and declared that shelter beds are insufficient.

Have to give credit to Horgan and company, their efforts seem to be making a difference. More importantly their aggressive action of scooping up nearly completed buildings for social housing should help avoid concentrating social/addiction issues in run down buildings and within the city core. Helps and council are trying to solve homelessness all on their own at Victoria’s expense, thank goodness the Province is stepping in and providing housing across the region.

Good in theory except that for every building you take out of the general rental pool just increases market rents and forces more people to seek subsidized housing. That is in addition to those that move here from other Provines that don’t offer the same benefits.

I have two other issues. First is that nobody is budgetting for the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of this new inventory that the Government owns and that the whole subsidized housing game is a black box. Like $10 a day daycare we know that SOME people get to take advantage but the rules for what gets funded and who is prioritized seem to be opaque. It is based on need, party affiliation or something else?

[spanky123]

The other day on CFAX a statement was made that despite the cold weather shelter beds are going unused, and at a large rate, too.

Let’s face it. Camping in parks is no longer tethered to shelter bed availability and likely never was.

Agreed but if it were ever challenged in court then I am sure that the City would find a few affidavits to state that there were no beds available. Sort of like their claims in court that plastic bag disposal was a financial burden to the City.

[Victoria Watcher]

Good in theory except that for every building you take out of the general rental pool just increases market rents and forces more people to seek subsidized housing. That is in addition to those that move here from other Provines that don’t offer the same benefits.

I have two other issues. First is that nobody is budgetting for the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of this new inventory that the Government owns and that the whole subsidized housing game is a black box. Like $10 a day daycare we know that SOME people get to take advantage but the rules for what gets funded and who is prioritized seem to be opaque. It is based on need, party affiliation or something else?

the entire premise of social housing is one big shell game with tax money.

instead of paying money month after month to house “the poor” we should be looking for ways to help lift some out of poverty.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 February 2019 - 02:36 PM.

[zoomer]

I'm not talking about creating a giant pool of social housing similar to the British council estates that have for the most part been a failed social policy. Basic homes for the hard to house, a couple different levels to motivate people to strive for more, and of course help them help themselves.

We're talking about 1% of the population - in order to get people out of parks and not sleeping in doorways, I'm willing to contribute as a taxpayer to that cost. There has been and always will a certain percentage of society that will be unable to help themselves, whether that's because of mental health issues,fetal alcohol syndrome or permanently fried brains from drug addiction.

[Victoria Watcher]

We're talking about 1% of the population - in order to get people out of parks and not sleeping in doorways, I'm willing to contribute as a taxpayer to that cost. 

 

 

it's much smaller than that.  the last pit count had 158 people living outside.  and 1500 total homeless.

 

1% would be in the neighbourhood of 4000.

 

 

 .

[Nparker]

Has anyone ever noticed how the housing crisis/homelessness is almost never framed publicly in the perspective of percentage of the total population?

Edited by Nparker, 10 February 2019 - 03:24 PM.

[tjv]

What I want to know is how many homeless have been out sleeping outdoors this past week?  Where is the tent city?

 

maybe there are enough shelter beds - hmmmmmmm.  Hey Chrissy, I want answers!

[LJ]

Well we could implement the green new deal that some dems want to put in place....

 

http://thefederalist...green-new-deal/

[sdwright.vic]

^And as this paper is a far right one, I am sure the extent of what its saying is a wee bit hyperbole.

[Victoria Watcher]

well for sure nobody is proposing trains to Hawaii. the right should stop saying stuff like that.

“unwilling to work” was in the text for a while then removed. right should move on from that.

all fossil fuel vehicles and power generating gone in 10 years every building upgraded stiff like that is impossible. right should focus on that.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 11 February 2019 - 07:26 AM.

[Mike K.]

Speaking of which:

"I think the Democrats have had a horrible six weeks in 2019. They're the ones at the table now that can't get this [border security deal] done. They're the ones hurdling us toward a shutdown. The top Democrat in Virginia is an accused racist. The second top Democrat in Virginia is an accused rapist, difference of a letter and they've got this congresswoman from Minnesota again having anti-Semitic sewage spilling from her mouth overnight [Rep. Ilhan Omar]. And then, you've got people running for president on the Green New Deal, 70 percent taxes, socialized medicine, they want to do away with cows, they want to do away with gas, they want to do away with cow gas and air travel," Conway said. "They're sitting on their hands while the president is speaking against abortion in the eighth and ninth month, trying to stop human trafficking and sex trafficking, I mean this has been a really terrible six weeks and we need a fully functioning Washington where both parties are focused on 2019 and not 2020."

- https://townhall.com...unsafe-n2541144