28056 replies to this topic

[Tony]

Warming Centre (Daytime)

• Purpose: Immediate, short-term relief from extreme cold.
• Hours: Typically daytime hours.
• Sleeping: Usually restricted to sitting in chairs; rarely allowed to lie down.
• Facilities: Heated space, washrooms, sometimes hot beverages or snacks.
• Access: Open to the public. 

 

Overnight Cold Centre (Emergency Shelter)

• Purpose: Preventing hypothermia and death for people sleeping outside activated during extreme weather events.
• Hours: Usually open from evening (e.g., 7 p.m. or 8 p.m.) to morning (e.g., 7 a.m. or 8 a.m.).
• Sleeping: Designed for sleeping with mats, cots, or beds.
• Facilities: Washrooms, often food/snacks, and sometimes showers.
• Activation: Activated based on specific temperature thresholds, such as -4°C or colder (or with wind chill). 

 

 Both are considered crucial, life-saving measures during winter. 

Edited by Tony, 23 January 2026 - 09:06 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

But specifically, the Sidney centre does not have mats, cots or beds, that your clip says an overnight centre should have.

 

AI:

 

Yes, forcing someone to sleep in a chair (specifically a restraining or stress position chair) is a recognized form of torture and inhuman treatment. This technique is often used to inflict pain and psychological terror, and to induce confessions. 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I suspect they are not allowing "sleeping" but rather refer to it as "nappping in chairs" due to some stupid regulatory thing.  In practice, they will likely let people sleep on the floor.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 January 2026 - 09:14 PM.

[Beacon]

 

Residents in Victoria’s Burnside Gorge neighbourhood say they support compassionate and effective solutions to homelessness, but feel blindsided by plans for a new shelter in their community.

The City of Victoria has announced a 34-unit shelter at the 2900 block of Bridge Street. The facility, known as Bridge Street Pathways, will be a 6,000-square-foot, referral-only shelter focused on recovery and directed supports.

[...]

Community representatives point to the neighbourhood’s history of hosting shelter services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, five hotels across Victoria were used as emergency shelter for unhoused people. Four of them located in Burnside Gorge.

Watch the story below:

The association also references a 2018 memorandum of understanding with BC Housing, which states that “BC Housing has committed to no additional supportive housing projects in the Burnside Gorge area.”

 

https://cheknews.ca/...helter-1301458/

 

 

Where was the agreement in 2020 and 2021 when all the hotels and makeshift supportive housing was opened there in Burnside Gorge before?  

 

Or as we likely all know, BC Housing just does what it wants and the Mayor didn't consult with the neighbourhood, because they would have said no....

[Victoria Watcher]

She already said they didn’t consult with the neighbours about the SOLID premises on Dowler because people would be opposed.

Meanwhile she had a contract to represent them or lobby for them in the past.

And the leader was previously a convicted drug dealer.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 January 2026 - 10:27 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Residents shaken by screaming, property damage after care agency rents house on quiet Port Coquitlam street

Neighbours are raising concerns after a resident under the care of two social workers has prompted 50 visits from police since September




Several neighbours of the property said the person under care has repeatedly ripped up the property’s front door, kicked holes in the garage door and smashed the windshield of a car parked in the driveway.

[…]

Neighbour Amanda Kerby said she didn’t know what to think when a worker with Connective, a non-profit provider contracted by a provincial Crown corporation, Community Living B.C., thrust a flyer in her hand four months ago informing her they were going to be running a program at the property, which would help one resident “achieve their goals.”

https://vancouversun...-rents-property


We are an idiot society. We probably pay $600,000 a year to “care for” this one retarded individual. In “achieving their goals”.

This is also the company running the new Rock Bay shelter.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 January 2026 - 09:14 AM.

[Beacon]

The NDP back in the 90s thought it to be inhumane to house people in institutions and instead ejected as many as possible, even had quotas to be removed from mental health facilities and cared for in the community as it was seen as more compassionate (one could argue the jury is out on this one).  

 

Except, what we go instead was actual open air asylums in the community.  I bet they checked that Community Care box off as mission complete.

 

This was exactly what seeded East Hastings in Vancouver, and eventually Pandora Ave as all the services set up shop there.

[Victoria Watcher]

Prolific violent offender wants to turn life around, but can’t find housing after jail

 

https://cheknews.ca/...r-jail-1302878/

 

 

Are we supposed to feel sorry for this guy?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 31 January 2026 - 06:59 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Prolific violent offender wants to turn life around, but can’t find housing after jail

 

https://cheknews.ca/...r-jail-1302878/

 

 

Are we supposed to feel sorry for this guy?

 

 

2020:

 

'He's terrified, he's outside, he's freezing': A mother's ordeal trying to help her son off the streets

 

Pam Sanderson says she has run out of ways to help her son who is living on the streets of Victoria, B.C.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...hcart-1.5448759

 

Sanderson says her son has fallen through the cracks in two provinces.

She says Cathcart currently refuses to seek help for what she says are serious mental health problems. Sanderson says he has been banned from certain shelters and soup kitchens due to his behaviour and violent outbursts. 

In an interview last week at Victoria's Centennial Square, Cathcart said he would appreciate getting housing support, but told CBC he doesn't have mental health issues. 

 

 

 

 

 

2022:

 

Desperate mother hopes B.C. prolific offender report will lead to action

https://cheknews.ca/...action-1094131/

 

26-year-old Keith Cathcart, who has severe mental health and addictions challenges, has been in and out of jail most of his young life.

 

“He’s like a little caged animal and when he gets out he’s ten times worse than when he went in,” Sanderson said.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 31 January 2026 - 07:26 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

2020:

 

'He's terrified, he's outside, he's freezing': A mother's ordeal trying to help her son off the streets

 

Pam Sanderson says she has run out of ways to help her son who is living on the streets of Victoria, B.C.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...hcart-1.5448759

 

Sanderson says her son has fallen through the cracks in two provinces.

She says Cathcart currently refuses to seek help for what she says are serious mental health problems. Sanderson says he has been banned from certain shelters and soup kitchens due to his behaviour and violent outbursts. 

In an interview last week at Victoria's Centennial Square, Cathcart said he would appreciate getting housing support, but told CBC he doesn't have mental health issues. 

 

 

 

 

 

2022:

 

Desperate mother hopes B.C. prolific offender report will lead to action

https://cheknews.ca/...action-1094131/

 

26-year-old Keith Cathcart, who has severe mental health and addictions challenges, has been in and out of jail most of his young life.

 

“He’s like a little caged animal and when he gets out he’s ten times worse than when he went in,” Sanderson said.

 

 

2022:

 

Talked a lot lately about random violence in Vancouver, and we continue to hear from people who feel less safe. We take your concerns seriously, and there’s still work to do. But, we're making gains in our efforts to solve stranger assaults. A thread about some recent cases:

A visually impaired senior was punched in the stomach by a stranger while crossing the street at Thurlow and Alberni on March 31. Yesterday, #VPD arrested a 29-year-old man with a history of violent crimes and mental illness.

An 18-year-old international student from Mexico was sucker-punched while walking downtown on March 27. When the suspect fled, officers quickly obtained security video and tracked him down within the hour. Keith Cathcart, 26, is now charged with assault causing bodily harm.

 

https://www.facebook...150114347146627

[LJ]

Maricopa County in AZ just completed their point in time count of homeless in the county. The total was approximately 9300. Maricopa County has a population of approximately 4.5 million.

 

How does that compare to Victoria VW?

[Mike K.]

If they had the same rate as us, it would be a PiT count of 19,125, if ours is 1,700 @ 400,000 people.

[Victoria Watcher]

If they had the same rate as us, it would be a PiT count of 19,125, if ours is 1,700 @ 400,000 people.

 

Ours is 1,700 at 95,000 people though.

[Mike K.]

I thought that’s CRD?

I saw orgs like Sooke Shelter Society involved.

[Victoria Watcher]

I thought that’s CRD?

I saw orgs like Sooke Shelter Society involved.

 

Well, if I just exclude Sooke and the 25 beds in Saanich, it's 1,700/95,000.  (the total in 2025 was 1749).

 

https://www.crd.ca/m...urvey-reportpdf

 

Quie purposefully, even though the report is 40 pages long and they ask such questions as the sexual orientation and race of the individuals, they never break it down WHERE groups or numbers are located, even generally.

 

Hint:  95% of them are likely in CoV.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 02 February 2026 - 09:14 AM.

[Mike K.]

Ok, I thought that I was missing that info but they indeed have not disclosed it.

I keep hearing that there are hundreds and hundreds of people sleeping outdoors throughout the CRD -not- in the CoV. Homeless camps are broken up in the Sooke area with some regularity, for instance. We hear of camps at Cuthbert Holmes in Saanich, in parks in Langford, etc. And there is obviously a seasonal migration happening as well. Some will come to the region in winter, but I feel like much more camping is occurring in warmer months. It could be migration or it could be choice along the homeless to move out of shelters or facilities.

I would posit then, that there are far, far more than 1,749 in the CRD, but we just can’t get to them for the count.

[Victoria Watcher]

The death toll from the frigid winter weather in New York City has risen to 16, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday — as the blowback over his handling of the extended killer cold snap intensifies.

Hizzoner said at an unrelated press conference that 13 people died from hypothermia and another three died of overdoses outside since the freezing temps descended on the city Jan. 19.

“Each of these lives lost is a tragedy,” Mamdani said. “My heart was with the families of those mourning their loved ones.

https://nypost.com/2...om-hypothermia/

[Mike K.]

The Catherine Street housing facility caught fire yesterday afternoon. A unit on the third floor could be seen with smoke billowing out, but luckily it was quickly contained. Lots of fire trucks responded.