The B.C. government has extended the deadline for moving people from the homeless camps at Topaz Park and Pandora Avenue into hotel rooms or other indoor spaces.
Social Development Minister Shane Simpson said Friday that officials require more time to make sure people transition to accommodations that best meet their needs.
“No one will be asked to leave these encampments without being offered suitable temporary housing options,” he said.
Solicitor General Mike Farnworth issued a public-safety order last month to evacuate the camps by Saturday. The deadline has now been moved to May 20.
B.C. Housing says 100 of about 360 people in the camps had been moved to hotel rooms and other facilities as of 4 p.m. Thursday.
The government has secured 376 spaces for people at seven sites in Victoria, including 45 pop-up rooms at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Simpson said the strategy to move people indoors recognizes that the COVID-19 outbreak coupled with the ongoing overdose crisis has increased risks for vulnerable people living in the camps.
People moving into hotels and other indoors spaces are being provided with meals, washroom facilities, health care, addictions treatment, overdose prevention services and storage, he said.
Simpson said the non-profit agencies that will manage the facilities have requested more time to prepare the accommodations and their staff for the arrival of people from the camps.
“It is our desire that we get this right, that we do it right, that we do it in a way that engages people one on one, that is compassionate, that is considerate of people’s needs and their desires,” he said. “So we were happy to say take a few more days. We’re good with that.”
He stressed that a lot of the groundwork has already been done in the camps to assess people’s needs and prepare them to move in the coming days.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said the extension will provide more breathing room to get the necessary supports in place at the indoor spaces.
“The province is working hard to drum up service providers to take over some of these facilities,” she said. “So I’m very pleased to see the extension from May 9 to May 20. It means that people will be able to move into these buildings with the support they need to stay there, with the health care they need to stay there.”
Simpson reiterated that moving people to hotels and other facilities from the camps in Victoria and Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver is an interim step toward finding them permanent housing. He said that could come in the form of acquisitions, modular housing options or units already under construction in some communities.
“Our commitment is that we’re looking to make sure everybody that we removed from Pandora and Topaz and Oppenheimer has an opportunity for permanent housing, and the path forward is through these temporary accommodations,” he said.
Victoria city council passed a motion Thursday thanking provincial officials for taking “decisive action” to house people in the camps, but urging them to leave no one behind.
Coun. Jeremy Loveday said there are people currently sleeping in Beacon Hill and Stadacona parks as well as in vehicles and doorways across the city.
“And it’s my opinion that all of those people should have the same access to housing options as someone who is currently residing in one of the tent cities,” he said.
