Victoria bylaw officers will continue to monitor homeless campers but will not force them to leave any city parks.
“Sleeping overnight, if you’re a homeless person, is allowed,” said Mark Hayden, manager of bylaw and licensing services. “But you can’t live in the park and store all your goods there.”
Earlier this week, Fernwood residents spoke out about a dozen or so homeless campers in Kings Park, a small green space in the 1100 block of Caledonia Avenue near Cook Street.
“Nobody can go in that park now,” said Creole Carmichael, a jewelry designer who lives on the next block.
Carmichael was concerned about the lack of washrooms at the park and potential illegal activities. Hayden said bylaw officers haven’t seen any evidence that campers have been using the park as a toilet and the majority of the campers keep the park clean. “Some people have been issued [$100] tickets for failing to take their structures down in the morning,” he said.
According to city bylaws, homeless people can camp in city parks from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. but must take down any tents or structures in the morning.
The city’s homeless won the ability to camp in a 2009 B.C. Supreme Court decision that ruled they had a charter right to “life, liberty and security.”
“It’s a balance for us,” Hayden said. Four bylaw officers patrol parks in the mornings from Monday to Saturday.
“There are many legitimate uses for city parks, including sleeping if you’re homeless, but also doing recreational things for everyone,” he said.
Other city parks, including Beacon Hill, also have campers, he said, and numbers increase in the summer. “I don’t have any statistics but my sense is that there are more campers earlier this year than last year.”
One of the reasons homeless people are camping in parks is because there’s nowhere else to go, say front-line workers.
“We’re always full, every night,” said Don McTavish, director of shelters at the Cool Aid Society. The organization manages 84 beds, two family suites, 23 transitional apartments and a 25-bed women’s shelter.
McTavish said they consistently have to put out some, if not all, of the 20 extra mats at the Rock Bay overnight shelter.
“It’s hard to say how many more people are on the streets because we’re always operating at more than 100 per cent,” said McTavish, adding housing — not more shelters — is needed to address homelessness in the city.
“It’s a human right for someone to have a place to rest their head, especially older people,” he said in reference to the Kings Park campers, who are mostly over 50.
Grant McKenzie, communications director at Our Place Society, said the service provider has noticed a sharp increase in demand for meals and showers over the past six months.
“Meals served have roughly increased from 28,000 a month to 40,000 since December,” he said, adding the society is expanding programs to meet the need.
