It was no walk in the park for Victoria politicians who met the wrath of Topaz Park area residents on Thursday night over a proposed temporary tent city for the homeless.
The walk-about planned by politicians in the sprawling Topaz Park — where people batted baseballs, swung hockey sticks and climbed play equipment — devolved into a political flogging as a majority of the about 300 people gathered rejected the idea of a tent city.
Several people brought placards, one reading: “Tent cities belong to refugee camps in Third World cities.” Another read: “No tent cities in any park.”
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps asked the crowd to choose between an open microphone exchange or a walk-about, which was planned before the mayor publicly apologized this week for rolling out the homeless tenting plan without public consultation and promised to put the process on hold.
The crowd chose to talk. Children to seniors voiced their concerns.
The mayor, who said no decision will be made without significant public consultation, repeatedly welcomed solutions. “Help us,” she implored. “This is the best of democracy,” she said. Helps encouraged people to attend a workshop on sheltering on Sept. 16 at city hall from 5 to 7 p.m.
When syringes found in the park were thrown down like gauntlets, she picked them up and put them in her purse.
Critics said a tent city would bring chaos, drug use and crime to Topaz Park and their neighbourhood, but couched their concerns with compassion for the vulnerable, addicted, mentally ill, and marginalized people in the city without homes or safe lodging.
All agreed the homeless must have homes, but said a tent city in Topaz Park, or any park in the region, was not the answer.
Resident Rabbi Meir Kaplan said there are not enough safe parks for kids and if the tent city is allowed to go ahead on a temporary basis it will never again be the same park.
Nathan Peterson, 10, stood up to say: “I don’t want to find needles in the park,” while a young girl drew empathy from the crowd when she said: “The park is full of happy faces every day, and all the happy faces are going to be crushed.”
Resident Frankie Chao, with his three-year-old son, Kevin, said he chose the area because of the safe environment and wants to protect his family from harm.
Alison Acker suggested this was an opportunity for Victoria to work together to find a solution and set an example for other cities.
Registered nurse Stephanie Johnstone came from Sidney because her grown daughter once struggled with depression and drugs and said the most important thing is how we treat our most vulnerable.
Several people called on the federal and provincial governments to do more.
North Park resident Bernice Kamano said the tent city solution is “just a Band-Aid,” but better than nothing until the wound of homelessness can be healed.
Victoria Coun. Ben Coun. Ben Isitt, a resident of the area and a champion of the idea of using the southwest corner of Topaz Park for a temporary designated and regulated tenting area, was steadfast in the merit of the idea, but was mostly booed when he expressed that.
Isitt said his aim is to improve conditions for the most marginalized who already camp in Topaz Park and other parks and to do something better for them.
People who want to comment by email can write to [email protected]
At the end of the meeting, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and the remaining smaller crowd drafted a motion that reads: "Direct staff to consult the public on options for all forms of sheltering before council considers any proposal for a tent city in any park." It will be brought to council next week. "We turned all the angst into productive energy and worked together," said Helps.
City of Victoria website: Temporary Tenting Area Pilot Project
