The neighbourhood was blindsided by the announcement that a temporary homeless shelter is set to open in early January in the former site of Boys and Girls Club on Yates Street, says one nearby resident.
“My participation feels somewhat hollow, given a decision has already been made,” said Seth Cooper, one of about 200 people who attended a Wednesday community meeting in the gym of the city-owned building, where shelter residents will pitch their tents, heading upstairs to a dining area for three meals a day.
The goal is to house some of the campers from 50 or more tents pitched on the provincial courthouse lawn on Burdett Avenue.
Cooper fears homeless people will spill over from the shelter to camp in a nearby park. “Is Central Middle School Park going to turn into the next tent city?” he asked.
But Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps told the crowd that when B.C. Housing Minster Rick Coleman announced on radio that the shelter was going ahead, the city could hardly respond: “Sorry minister — we’ll just keep them outside for a few more weeks.”
Don Evans, executive director of Our Place Society, which will run the 40-bed shelter at 1240 Yates St., said residents will not congregate outside, as they will have chores, meal preparation and cleaning up to do.
Nearby resident Yvonne Dalgren said her concern is not with homeless people but “the people who prey on homeless people,” such as drug dealers and pimps, who could also intimidate children from Central Middle School across the street and elderly neighbours. But Evans said police would be called at the first sign of dealers.
John Bertram, who is camping at the courthouse tent city, told the group the shelter will be a “stepping stone” for him and his wife, and the fact that it is warm and they won’t have to stand watch on their belongings or be forced to pack up their tent in the morning, as in city parks, is a big plus.
School trustee Ann Whiteaker, waiting in line to speak at a microphone, said the school board would never be allowed to build a school beside a homeless shelter but the province can locate a homeless shelter beside a school.
Central Middle School principal Topher Macintosh said that he was “at a loss for words” when the mayor informed him of the shelter plan on Dec. 15. He said he has many concerns about the situation, given that nearly half the student body of 527 is already officially identified as “at risk.” Most of the school’s students are age 11 to 13.
“If this were a meeting held two weeks from now, half the school would be here,” he said.
Parent Paula Ferris said she’s worried additional homeless people will come by for meals or to wash up, and wondered who would be responsible for “field sweeps” to detect drug paraphernalia on the school grounds.
Evans told her there would be no curfew, no drop-ins and no visitors — as they could be drug dealers — and shelter staff would conduct drug sweeps. Ferris also asked the shelter to try to keep the residents inside for about two hours a day, when students are arriving and departing.
Helps noted the shelter’s entrance would be at a back corner far from Yates, and the smoking area would be out back.
Kelly McLaren, whose son attends Central Middle School, won loud applause when she said she supports providing housing for homeless people but has heard “horrendous stories” about the goings-on in the tent city behind the provincial courthouse.
The way the decision was quickly made without parental input just before Christmas break was “disrespectful to us and to our children,” McLaren said.
The decision has meant she’s backing away from allowing her son the independence to walk to school alone, she said. “There’s got to be a better place to do this,” she said.
Central teacher Charlotte Dorion, whose child also attends the school, said feeling safe is critical for students and school staff, who shouldn’t have to be asked to police the halls for unstable people.
Some of the students are already outside the school at 7:30 a.m., she said. “I don’t think a 10-year-old should have to walk by a potentially dangerous environment.”
Evans said the biggest concern of the shelter residents is “just surviving. “When we provide them with a home, it makes a big difference in their mental state,” he said. “We believe we can create a safe environment inside the building and outside the building.”
The city has already begun $45,000 in renovations to the Yates Street building to make way for the temporary 24/7 shelter, planned to open the first week of January and operate until April 30.
The city will lease its long-vacant property to B.C. Housing, with the shelter operated by Our Place, which will offer all-day support services, storage, laundry and daily meals for 40 people.
B.C. Housing has allocated $400,000 for the shelter, and the United Way of Greater Victoria is contributing $25,000.
