CTV is reporting that "Victoria’s mayor believes the housing crisis in her city has become so dire that bylaws ought to be changed to allow people to legally sleep inside vehicles parked on the street." CBC is reporting that they are ticketing people for sleeping in cars. The acting police chief opposes changing he bylaw so City counsel choked and changed their mind.
and the Provincial Park campsites are so full of foreign tourists in R.V.s not even those of us who live in B.C. can find a camping spot. sort of makes you wonder if Christy and her cabal don't want more camping spots in provincial parks because people who can't afford housing will move in.
ReplyDeleteThe City of Victoria could use a parking lot to allow people to camp in their vehicles. Set them up with sewer lines and water. Its a very inexpensive alternative to building apartments and would give cities time to build apartments.
This homeless problem isn't confined to those who we traditionally thought of as homeless, its people working full time who can't afford to rent. The Channel 6 news from Victoria yesterday reported on people who were homeless and that included a young woman who worked but could only afford $800 per month for rent and apartments were $1000. she was couch surfing, but essentially she was homeless. this ought not be happening. Various levels of government have been remiss in not addressing the housing affordability crisis.
In the Comox Valley, Habitat for Humanity and a variety of organizations such as the Rotary have provided rehabilitated vacation trailers which people live in at a privately owned camping ground. Homeless people had moved there and the owners with community groups decided to make life better for those on min. income. it has worked.
The police chief is looking at things from a policing point of view which would include people using these vehicles for illegal activities which would make it harder to police. then there are the issues of people camping in neighbourhoods where they are not wanted. Conflict resolution won't be in a board room. the police chief most likely wants to head off problems. What the police chief is doing is forcing the politicians to make better decisions when it comes to providing affordable housing.
Think of the tents cities that have cropped up in any number of areas in B.C. now think of that in a residential neighbourhood. Its a cops nightmare. The police chief is not the social worker in chief. Politicians need to take a more active roll and prevent developers from destroying affordable housing, but don't hold your breath. The city of Victoria could simply set aside one of their parking lots, for campers to move to. However, the business owners in the area will scream its effecting their business.
Don't blame the police chief at all for doing this. the fire chief most likely wasn't too keen on this either.
Christy needs to forget about a $9 billion dam with an 80% over run and put the money into affordable housing and social housing.
The police chief is another scumbag like the one before him. Other cities don't do this.
DeleteThe picture is taken along Douglas Street where people have lived in their vehicles for as long as I lived in Victoria. The streets is residences on one side, Beacon Hill Park on the other. The only police cars ever seen in that area are racing to some situation or other. Meanwhile on the direct opposite side of the park, Cook Street is crawling with police enforcing every bylaw in the book. Could that be because the parking spots in front of the coffee shops are full of police cruisers and motorcycles? Or does somebody important live in that area.
ReplyDeleteInterested in your comment on our new police chief Dennis -- after two scumbags in a row I hoped we weren't at Strike 3.
I don't know the new police chief personally but they are starting off with a bad precedent but the previous one from Ontario was a total scumbag.
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