The City of Victoria is serving notice that overnight sheltering in Topaz, Hollywood and Regatta Point parks will come to an end after the summer.
Council endorsed a motion put forward by Mayor Marianne Alto Thursday to add the three parks to a growing list of sites where camping will no longer be tolerated.
The decision comes a week after council adopted bylaw amendments that prohibited overnight sheltering at all times in Beacon Hill Park, Central Park and Stadacona Park.
“The purpose of this actually is to try and find a bit more balance in the use of our public parks between folks who do need a place to shelter and folks who don’t,” said Alto. “It would be my preference not to be moving in this direction, but I think that it is incredibly important for us to imagine park use for all residents, both housed and unhoused.”
Council passed the motion 7-2, with councillors Marg Gardiner and Stephen Hammond voting against it. Gardiner said it would just push tenters to other parks.
Staff will now amend bylaws to prohibit overnight sheltering at all times in Topaz, Hollywood and Regatta Point parks by Sept. 1, subject to the city being able to provide better shelter for those camping in the park.
The vote also directed staff to dedicate up to $25,000 to hire a third-party contractor to help transition campers from the parks, and to identify designated spaces in the city that could serve as alternatives to sheltering in parks — and spots where new supportive housing projects could be established.
Coun. Krista Loughton added the conditions to the original motion, saying council couldn’t act without providing an alternative plan for people who currently use those parks for sheltering. “I don’t want unhoused people to be displaced because of measures that this council seems to be supporting and closing down parks for sheltering,” she said.
Loughton said the parks relocation co-ordinator would work with people individually to find housing or shelter suitable for each person.
“This would be a one-person-at-a-time approach working with those who are able to get into more market housing with the use of the provincial rent supplement program, and others will need to be placed in supportive housing or designated spaces like transitional tiny home villages that I would like to see set up throughout the region,” she said.
Loughton said sheltering in parks and other public spaces is an untenable situation that is harmful to those experiencing homelessness and the residents and businesses in the affected neighbourhoods.
She said the ultimate solution is adequate social housing, but that doesn’t exist and until then, the city needs to work with senior governments and social agencies to find alternatives.
Loughton is in favour of more projects like the 30-unit tiny-home community that sits on part of the Royal Athletic Park parking lot, and said the first step is finding places where they could be established.
“We cannot go on like this. Without a bed to sleep in and a door you can lock, how on earth can people stabilize?”
The Beacon Hill Park prohibition brought the city in line with a recent Supreme Court ruling that overnight sheltering in Beacon Hill is not a permitted use of the park under the terms of the Beacon Hill Park Trust.
The bylaw prohibiting sheltering in the park was due to expire in July, while the one prohibiting sheltering at Central Park near Crystal Pool expired last fall. Stadacona Park was later added.
Alto said adding Topaz Park, Hollywood Park and Regatta Point Park to the list balances availability and prohibitions among neighbourhoods in the centre, north, south, and west of the city.
But Gardiner was not placated, noting reducing the number of parks where people can shelter only concentrates the sheltering problem in parks where it’s still allowed.
“I find the motion before us to be as egregious as the one on Stadacona [last week],” she said. “Given the continuing sheltering and issues over the past several years, sheltering in parks will be concentrated now in Vic West and James Bay.”
With the addition of the three parks to the list of prohibited zones, only five parks with washroom facilities will continue to allow overnight sheltering — Pemberton Park, Gonzales Park, Irving Park, Victoria West Park and Oaklands Park.
There are several parks without washroom facilities where sheltering is allowed. The city also has 23 parks where sheltering is not allowed at any time.
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