The mayor of Victoria is standing behind Victoria police’s three-step plan to make Pandora Avenue and Ellice Street safer, but Marianne Alto says she agrees with Chief Del Manak that the strategy is only “treating symptoms.”
The first part of the plan, with a price tag of about $80,000 in overtime costs, involves additional officers patrolling the 900-block of Pandora and 500-block of Ellice Street to target the criminal element.
The second phase involves enforcing bylaws banning daytime sheltering on the streets, while the third step includes working with service providers and governments to find housing for those living on the street.
The stepped-up patrols and sweeps are a reaction to a July 11 assault on a paramedic by a patient on the 900-block of Pandora Avenue. The incident led to police and other first responders being swarmed by about 60 people.
In response, paramedics and firefighters have said they will no longer go to medical calls in the area without police.
Alto said she appreciates the fact VicPD is targeting the criminal element on Pandora and Ellice, but says the initiative will only go so far because of gaps in social services — from affordable housing to health care — that have “really pushed people into desperate situations,” and left the police and city trying to plug the holes.
“As a local government, police and service providers and everyone else who’s working on the ground, we can only fill these gaps temporarily,” Alto said in an interview Wednesday, a day after Manak unveiled the plan.
Alto credited the province for its work on providing housing, but said it takes too long. “Meanwhile, the city and the police service and the fire service and the ambulance service and all the emergency services … are trying to respond to all of this and deal with the symptoms,” she said, adding the effort is not sustainable.
“We need to have more work done at the provincial level and arguably at the federal level, too.
“We’ll continue to do everything that we can, but we can only do this so long.”
Alto noted that of the 1,456 supportive-housing units in the capital region, 1,267 are in the city of Victoria.
“I know that there are people who would like to have those services in their home municipalities, and would prefer to stay there if those services existed,” she said.
In a statement, Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth said the province is working with VicPD and the City of Victoria to determine what “additional resources or supports [are] needed for the plan they outlined so that they can ensure that they can keep people in our community safe.”
He also noted the government, across several ministries, is working to ensure proper supports are available for people who are homeless.
“The Ministry of Housing and B.C. Housing-funded outreach workers are actively connecting with people sheltering outdoors on Pandora Avenue and throughout the City of Victoria, to ensure they’re aware of health, social and other supports, shelters, drop-in services, and how to apply to the Supportive Housing Registry,” he added.
