Someone stole Wade Churcott's stuff. Two big black garbage bags, crammed with everything he owned: clothes, a couple of books and four blankets - two to sleep under, two to place between himself and the bone-chilling concrete. He had stashed them in some bushes. Gone.
It was, in fact, the fourth time in 3 1 /2 months of living on the street, of sleeping outside the Castle Building Centre on Cook Street, that the 39-year-old had suffered such a theft. He had dropped 30 pounds by then.
That was the day Churcott, addicted and homeless for much of the past 25 years, learned he would be moving into Queens Manor.
"I got the word that I had a place to stay, and I cried."
Churcott was all smiles Friday at the official unveiling of the newly renovated Queens Manor, a former Travellers Inn at the corner of Queens Avenue and Douglas Street. Operated by the Cool-Aid Society, it offers 36 units of supported housing to people who are either homeless or in danger of becoming so.
Chalk up another milestone in the four years since the dysfunction on the city's streets forced the creation of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness. Visible homelessness has dropped since then. Priority was placed on finding places for the hard-to-house - the difficult characters whose behaviour would lead Victorians to scuttle across the street - and it shows. The Victoria Police Board got a report this week showing problems have eased. Hospital admissions have dropped, too.
The change is apparent downtown. When Cool-Aid's Streetlink shelter at the foot of Fisgard was reborn at Rock Bay Landing on Ellice Street in 2010, and when Our Place returned to the 900 block of Pandora from the 700 block of Johnson in 2008, the attendant street issues moved farther away from the tourists.
Mayor Dean Fortin says delegates to September's Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Victoria marvelled at the difference.
The sense of urgency around homelessness has faded a bit. When the Vital Signs report card on Victoria's health was released this month, the perennial No. 1 issue had been overtaken by concerns about the cost of living.
And there's the rub: Out of sight, out of mind doesn't mean the war is over.
Want proof? Just look at the Thanksgiving feast for 800 that Gordy Dodd held at St. Andrew's Presbyterian on Monday, Fortin says. "Poverty is still a big issue in our community."
Streetlink reports that 1,500 individuals used its shelters last year. Rock Bay Landing is running over capacity. When the Times Colonist ran a story about the plight of the Mustard Seed on Thursday, it prompted St. John the Divine Anglican Church to report a 15 per cent jump in demand at its own food bank this year. A 43-year-old homeless man died last month after his portable heater caught fire as he slept outside in Saanich. Housing officials say hundreds of people are scattered in makeshift camps around the region; Greater Victoria needs another 719 homes in the pipeline if the coalition's goal of wiping out homelessness by 2018 is to be reached.
The Queens Manor project adds 36 apartments to the mix. The building has actually been running at about two-thirds capacity for the past couple of years, tenants moving around the construction. Ottawa picked up $1.5 million of the $5.5-million cost. The province came up with $2.9 million (including buying the property from Victoria for $1.9 million, which is how much the city paid for it) and will provide a $548,000 annual subsidy. The city, CRD and United Way came up with the rest.
For Churcott, who moved in two weeks ago, it meant having his own place for the first time in a year and a half - he stayed in shelters before spending the last 3 1 /2 months outside the hardware store. By the time he finally got to Queens Manor, he was desperate to crawl into a real bed under a real roof, just like everyone else. "I literally lay down and slept for three days."
He is grateful for his new home and its round-the-clock support staff.
"It's the most dignifying feeling a person can have when they come from such a low place."
