Victoria city council’s decision to place “social service centres” throughout the municipality with no input from residents was an act of colossal arrogance.
The plan, introduced by Mayor Marianne Alto, was approved by a vote of 6-3, and zoning regulations are being amended accordingly.
These centres may offer up to 40 shelter spaces for homeless people, and various other services are contemplated.
It’s not clear at this point how many of these centres will be developed. The only limit council has set so far is that no centre may be established within 100 metres of another. In other words there, could be dozens.
In an attempt to be reassuring, we are told that: “Nuisances or negative impacts must not occur,” though how council hopes to live up to that promise is not readily apparent.
This is, from start to finish, a hopelessly ill-considered initiative. At the first centre so far decided, on Dowler Place in North Park, illicit drug use will be permitted.
Is this to be the model for other sites? Notably, drug consumption at the Dowler Place centre will not be medically supervised. Instead, we’re told, consumption will be “peer-based.” That sounds like a recipe for trouble.
This is not purely a city-wide issue. It has become clear over the past two years that there is no consensus country-wide, and no reliable data, as to how illicit drug use should be managed and regulated.
We’ve already seen what happened when the province attempted to decriminalize consumption of street drugs.
Faced with huge public opposition to consumption in public places like parks and beaches, the province backed down.
Indeed the controversy around how to effectively address illicit drug use, both preventing death and maintaining safe and family-friendly communities extends far beyond our shores.
Across North America and beyond, jurisdictions are desperately trying to address this very complex health and social problem. Over the past year, we’ve seen Oregon and California roll back some of their earlier attempts to stem illicit drug deaths in a search for an approach that works for the whole of society.
There is also the reality that any attempt at a solution must respect the rights of community members.
Residents in Victoria already live with the visible problems of addiction and homelessness. From the devastation of the Law Courts park in 2008 through the the situation on Pandora Avenue, quality of life in surrounding areas has suffered greatly.
That a solution to illicit drug consumption is required, no-one would dispute. B.C. has by far the highest number of illicit drug deaths per capita in the country.
What’s needed is a multi-year strategy that lays out what kinds of treatments, housing options, and institutional arrangements will be mounted to address this problem.
Targets must be set, and arrangements made to evaluate what works and what should be abandoned along the way.
Nothing in the city’s plan comes close to meeting these requirements. While council deserves credit for trying to deal with this problem, the fact is that individual municipalities simply do not have the resources to manage such a complex issue.
There is also the reality that if local governments around the province work in isolation, there will be no common system of standards or agreed terminology to measure success or failure.
The province’s minister of mental health and addiction, Jennifer Whiteside, has a role to play here. Her ministry has already laid out a 10-year plan for managing substance abuse.
Whiteside should meet with Union of B.C. Municipalities and propose a province-wide approach, with her ministry taking the lead. And local residents must be allowed meaningful input around any service centre that may be contemplated.
