Frustrated with shouldering most of the burden of housing the homeless in extreme weather, Victoria wants Saanich to create more shelters.
Council voted 7-1 Thursday to have Mayor Marianne Alto ask the district to set up additional shelter spaces in Saanich and take responsibility for unhoused residents in that municipality.
Coun. Jeremy Caradonna said the city is frustrated that Saanich is bigger than Victoria, has more industrial land and warehouses, yet has not “stepped up to the plate.”
“There are unhoused people in Saanich, many unhoused people. And the problem is that when the temperature drops, the expectation is that all those folks go to Victoria, and that is unacceptable,” he said. “Every jurisdiction has to step up and do their part.”
The motion came after a presentation to council from Victoria’s emergency program co-ordinator, Tanya Seal-Jones, who said lack of resources and service providers in neighbouring communities has placed additional strain on the city.
Victoria offers 350 year-round shelter spaces, while Saanich provides just 25 and Salt Spring Island offers 30, said Seal-Jones’s report, which also noted that of the 73 spaces in the region for extreme-weather events, Victoria has 50, Sooke has 13 and Salt Spring has 10.
Victoria also has five potential warming centres — Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, Fernwood Community Centre, the Little Fernwood building, Victoria Curling Club and Cook Street Village Activity Centre — that can be activated in an emergency.
“The problem is that other jurisdictions are not doing their part,” said Caradonna. “The fact that Salt Spring Island has more [extreme-weather response] beds than Saanich or Esquimalt is, frankly, unacceptable.”
Caradonna said it may be uncomfortable to point the finger at a single district like Saanich, but the conversation has to start because Victoria can’t be expected to do it all.
The only vote against Thursday’s motion came from Coun. Marg Gardiner, who said she is all for getting other municipalities to take responsibility for their homeless residents, but didn’t like the fact Victoria was singling out Saanich.
In response, Alto said “you have to start somewhere,” adding Saanich has both the population and capacity to do more.
“I think we have heard repeatedly from council members and the public a high degree of frustration about the concentration of shelter spaces in the city,” Alto said, noting the report council received Thursday showed two of the smallest communities in the CRD, Sooke and Salt Spring, have provided shelter spaces in their own communities.
Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock said he is open to a conversation on addressing lack of shelter beds, but a regional approach is needed to seeking senior government support on shelter beds and permanent shelter spaces.
“I appreciate the City of Victoria raising this conversation and it’s timely as we approach cold weather and the potential for emergency weather events,” he said.
“Saanich will be part of a regional effort to ensure that we have safe, adequate, warm spaces for people to seek shelter along with permanent spaces that need to be created around our region.”
Murdock acknowledged Saanich has just 25 shelter beds provided by the Victoria Native Friendship Centre in the Burnside and Tillicum area, in partnership with B.C. Housing.
He said that can be expanded during extreme weather, but when it reaches capacity, some people are directed to other shelters, many of which are downtown.
Seal-Jones confirmed homeless people were directed downtown from a number of municipalities last year when the weather turned. “We were receiving them by taxi and paying the taxi bill when they arrived at the warming centre,” she said.
Coun. Krista Loughton said there’s no question the region needs more emergency-weather-response shelter spaces. “We are looking down the barrel of having the same problem again this winter. And I would really urge other municipalities to take a second look at what they’re doing because we’re leaving people outside in the cold,” she said.
“Not only is this difficult for Victoria, difficult for our fire department, the auxiliary staff, but the critical thing here is [that] the lack of responsibility for residents who are unhoused could potentially leave someone frozen.”
Council agreed to have Alto write to all councils in the region and request they immediately establish their own emergency warming centres for the unhoused during extreme-weather events.
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