Victoria councillors may ultimately want to consider whether to send a bill to the province for additional costs the city has incurred in dealing with tent city, says city manager Jason Johnson.
Asked Thursday if the city has given consideration to invoicing the province, Johnson told councillors that the city has been in almost weekly contact with the province about costs associated with the encampment on the provincially owned courthouse lawn.
“What we hear back from the province is that they’re expending a considerable sum on tent city, as well,” Johnson said, adding that staff haven’t wanted to get into a jurisdictional dispute over who is responsible for what costs.
“Certainly, we expect that with the conclusion of tent city that will be a conversation with the province and likely one that council may want to take that position with the province and outline what those costs are and make that request.”
City staff “conservatively estimate” costs of dealing with homelessness over the past 12 months at $1.6 million. The costs directly attributable to tent city are estimated at $567,000 and mounting.
Coun. Ben Isitt wondered if having people concentrated in the tent city — rather than dispersed throughout the city, camping in parks — had saved the city money.
Staff said that was initially the case when the tent city was established last fall and fewer people were camping in parks.
“That has now changed,” Johnson said.
The number of people sheltering in parks has increased, crews are still doing regular cleanups of parks related to sheltering and bylaw officers and police are still conducting morning wake-up rounds seven days a week.
There is also anecdotal evidence that there has been an increase in the number of people sheltering on downtown city streets, he said.
“It’s not just within the parks,” he said. “But we have seen a noticeable increase, again, even with tent city, of folks sleeping within the downtown core.”
Meanwhile, the experience on the courthouse lawn has likely soured Victoria to the possibility of an organized tent city, said Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps.
“An organized, structured tent city, unfortunately, will never ever work in the city of Victoria, maybe not for 10 years or 15 years, because of the legacy of what’s happened on the courthouse lawns,” Helps said.
She said that’s unfortunate and cited the example of Eugene, Oregon, where there are six of them.
“They don’t call them tent cities, they call them rest stops. They are 18 people in each one. They have to apply to get in. They are run by a service provider,” Helps said.
Helps said she hopes the province is successful in getting a court injunction to shut down the tent city.
Statements that its closing will see people dispersed back into parks and alleys is “old rhetoric,” she said, noting that the province has pledged to provide housing for all in the camp who want it.
