Another fence is going up in the 800 block of Pandora Avenue as businesses grapple with drug-dealing and homelessness in the area.
The new fence, on private property, will block off a small stairwell and sunken alcove on the Pandora side of the former Central Care Home, between the Subway restaurant and the Central Baptist Church.
The work was started shortly after videos showing people conducting drug deals near the stairwell were posted online. In the videos, a man in a hooded sweater can be seen standing on the sidewalk, portioning out and selling drugs, and counting $20 bills.
In a statement, Victoria police said it is aware of the videos and has been working with nearby businesses to come up with ways to deal with loitering and drug dealing.
“We are aware that fencing is going up, and we believe this will create some displacement,” the department said. “We will continue to work with the neighbouring businesses in the area to address these problems.”
VicPD said officers were targeting drug traffickers in the area all last week, and said the people in the videos are being investigated.
In December, the Central Baptist Church, at 823 Pandora Ave., erected a concrete-block wall and metal fence in an effort to deter drug dealers and homeless people. The decision sparked a debate between those who felt the church was not showing compassion to the city’s most vulnerable, and others who felt the block is becoming increasingly unsafe.
“I personally don’t think fences are the answer,” Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps told the Times Colonist on Saturday.
One part of the solution, she said, is police enforcement to get drugs and the people dealing them off the streets. However, Helps said the bigger picture issue is to get treatment for people addicted to drugs.
“Any person who is out on the street who may look homeless or may look like someone who has a mental-health challenge, they’re not all drug dealers,” Helps said. “So we really need to keep a balanced perspective and not paint everyone with the same brush.”
Kalen Harris, owner of Shatterbox Coffee Bar, across Quadra Street and on the opposite side of Pandora from the Subway, said many of his customers work in the area.
“They have regular complaints about drug-dealer activity on the block and the general neglect from authorities,” Harris said.
For a long time, Harris said, members of the street community gathered outside the Victoria Conservatory of Music at the intersection of Pandora Avenue and Quadra Street.
Local business owners and the North Park Neighbourhood Association spoke with police as well as the staff at Our Place, at 919 Pandora, to try to address loitering and drug activity.
However, those efforts only displaced people west, to the block of Pandora between Quadra and Blanshard streets, Harris said.
“I’ve popped over to Subway and, yeah, you see people doing drug deals right on the corner there, and it’s not ideal for a neighbourhood that’s growing and changing,” he said.
“The end result of this, until we actually address the real issue of drug addiction and the sale of drugs, we’re just going to keep sweeping the issue off to the next shadowy corner.”
