As houselessness in Victoria continues to be a controversial topic of discussion, those who are unhoused have few places to go, and that list continues to get smaller as officials add more parks to the banned list of places to shelter.
While shelters continue to be removed in parks, VicPD and Bylaw officers refuse to answer questions from the media.
The City of Victoria, Bylaw, and VicPD have both been avoiding questions directed towards them in regards to the clearing of houseless folks from Topaz Park over the last few weeks, while being given plenty of opportunities to take accountability.
Now, the city’s Mayor is bringing up a motion to permanently prohibit overnight sheltering in Topaz Park as well as two others.
Lack of transparency and accountability
On May 5th, VicPD sent out a release to inform the public they were moving ahead with removing people who had been sheltering in Topaz Park due to community concerns and an increase of calls for service.
Concerns from the community that the park had become unsafe were what sparked the removal of the houseless people who had been camping there.
Currently, in Topaz Park, people are permitted to camp on the grounds between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., and according to VicPD, these bylaws are being enforced by them as well as Victoria Bylaw staff.
Victoria Buzz reached out to VicPD to answer some questions regarding the release that had been sent out — the questions asked are listed below:
- When did VicPD begin telling people sheltering in the park that they had to vacate? Their media release isn’t clear on when, it just states they have been told.
- Were the people sheltering there given anywhere to go with enough beds to shelter them all?
- How many people have now been ejected from the park since enforcement began?
- Is VicPD confiscating people’s personal property, such as tents, sleeping bags and clothing through this enforcement process?
- Is VicPD working with any qualified social service agency to aid the people they are displacing?
When VicPD replied two days later, their media spokesperson said, “I don’t have specific answers for all of your questions.”
Instead, it was suggested that Victoria Buzz contact the social services that were on location, but they did not specify which agencies were on site and stated the remainder of the questions should be directed toward Bylaw Services.
Victoria Buzz attempted to arrange a phone call to clarify what role VicPD had with the clearing of the individuals sheltering in Topaz Park, but VicPD’s spokesperson instead suggested speaking with a City of Victoria media representative.
Victoria Buzz reiterated the same questions to the media representative for the City of Victoria with one additional inquiry — “Why does VicPD not have the ability to answer a single question on this list if they were the ones announcing the enforcement while Bylaw and the City of Victoria didn’t release anything?”
Once again, Victoria Buzz requested a conversation with someone who knew what was happening so they could explain the process and steps taken. Bylaw answered through the City of Victoria, but only some questions. They also explained some of their policies and reasoning, but did not address the specific questions asked.
“The work primarily centers around conversations with people to achieve voluntary compliance,” said the city’s statement. “Sometimes compliance can take a long time, sometimes hours or even days depending on the particular barrier that person is trying to overcome.”
“Staff recognize that each person is a unique individual and consequently staff do not conduct ‘street sweeps’ or treat everyone in the exact same manner. Each person is evaluated for their ability to comply in any given time and place.”
The city did speak to the impounding of property, saying that if people who are sheltering don’t comply with bylaw, their shelters and other property are impounded for 30 days.
The problem with this is that when their belongings are impounded, those who are unhoused are oftentimes left with nothing but the clothes on their back.
The city concluded their statement with, “The enforcement activity that is occurring in Topaz this week, is consistent with our general bylaw approach as described above, except applied in a more consistent and regular manner with more frequent attendance due to persistent non-compliance with the bylaws.”
Victoria Buzz requested a follow-up with a Bylaw officer, but received no response from the City of Victoria representative.
VicPD is the organization that initially sent out the media release that police and Bylaw would be enforcing lawful sheltering Topaz Park, but could not speak to the specifics of what occurred after being given ample time.
Bylaw answered some questions presented to them about the enforcement and what was happening to the people who were sheltering in the park, but only spoke to the policies they enforce.
Some of Victoria’s most vulnerable population who are experiencing houselessness and taking shelter where they can are moved from one place to another when oftentimes, there isn’t anywhere else for them to go.
New sheltering prohibitions
Last week, at a committee of the whole meeting on June 15th, Victoria city councillors decided to disallow people from overnight camping in Stadacona as well as Beacon Hill and Central Parks, which had already prohibited overnight sheltering, leaving Topaz Park as one of the last refuges for Victoria’s houseless population to lawfully shelter.
On June 22nd, Mayor Marianne Alto will bring a new motion before city council to prohibit the overnight sheltering of three more parks, which include Topaz Park, Hollywood Park and Regatta Point Park.
If approved, this will leave only five parks for those without homes to shelter in overnight.
The reasons given by Mayor Alto for prohibiting sheltering in these parks are that Topaz Park is undergoing extensive renovations, in Hollywood Park, organized sport use has limited shelter space and Regatta Point’s confines next to bicycle paths offers only a small amount of safe sheltering space.
In contradiction to Alto’s claims, houseless folks have not been sheltering within the areas undergoing renovations and the city’s Bylaw services have been removing those sheltering from recreational areas.
By limiting the number of parks people have access to sheltering in, the five remaining parks in which sheltering isn’t prohibited are likely to see larger groups of houseless folks.
If Mayor Alto’s motion passes, the parks that will likely see more people sheltering are:
- Victoria West Park
- Irving Park
- Gonzales Park
- Pemberton Park
- Oaklands Park
City council are set to debate the issue at a meeting on June 22nd in an attempt to find a resolution that will not displace the unhoused currently sheltering in the affected parks.
More to come.
