How to properly house the unhoused and at-risk population in Victoria and many other urban centres in BC has been a question the Province and every municipality have been trying to answer for a long time now.
In Victoria specifically, the downtown core and certain other areas tend to be the focus when it comes to these issues due to the frequency of crime that can occur there.
City Councillor Stephen Hammond has recently put out a call to the BC government to create a new stream of funding for people living around some of these supportive housing endeavours and has not received a response to this call.
Specifically, Hammond is suggesting the Ministry of Housing provide a similar rebate program to one which was recently administered by a different ministry within the Province for small businesses which fall victim to vandalism.
In that program, the Securing Small Businesses Rebate, business owners are entitled to receive up to $2,000 for repairs and $1,000 for prevention. This initiative was launched in November of last year.
The City of Victoria has also launched a similar program with the Downtown Victoria Business Association after a string of vandalism swept the downtown core last year where business owners could access funds for repairs and prevention.
Hammond says he would like to see Minister Ravi Kahlon of the Ministry of Housing offer similar funding to those initiatives, “for better security for those neighbourhoods negatively affected by certain supportive housing.”
In an interview with Victoria Buzz, Hammond specifically cited an op-ed published in the Times Colonist in which someone was living across the street from Fernwood’s “Tiny Town.”
The author of this article installed several security measures when Tiny Town moved into the neighbourhood and began providing supportive housing for Victorians in need.
Despite their efforts, this author’s family awoke one night to a person shining a flashlight in their face at the foot of their bed and were justifiably terrified.
In addition to this incident, the author wrote that one of her neighbours decided to sell their home because of the supportive housing initiative and the people that it brought with it.
Just before Tiny Town was shuttered in September of last year, Victoria Buzz had spoken with Grant McKenzie, a spokesperson for Our Place Society, the local organization who operated the facility.
McKenzie said that while there was still some crime and mischief in the area, usually it was due to external factors.
“I can’t really think of any police incidents,” he explained. “When the people moved in there, they really took ownership of it.”
“There would have been police incidents around the neighbourhood that people wrongly connected to Tiny Town. It wasn’t the residents of Tiny Town—it was the people who were not housed.”
“It was a very peaceful environment,” McKenzie added.
While speaking with Victoria Buzz, Hammond echoed the author’s notion that while this may be true, the complex didn’t have ample enough security to keep a watchful eye over those that were in the area because of connections with the residents of Tiny Town.
In a press release he sent out to media along with the letter to Kahlon, Hammond says, “This is a request to find out if this ministry will spend a dime on the kind of safety measures and security needed when certain behaviours are brought into neighbourhoods due to insufficient staffing or due to the attraction of undesirable people to prey on supportive housing residents and their neighbours.”
BC Housing, who has since taken over the sea canisters which comprised Tiny Town, saw the letter written to Minister Kahlon and said that they are unaware of any crimes being definitively tied to the complex but also noted that those housed in this type of facility face unique challenges.
“Supportive housing provides much needed homes for people who are at risk of experiencing homelessness—bringing more people indoors, out of encampments, out of shelters, and providing people with access to a stable home,” said a BC Housing spokesperson.
“Just because a person is experiencing homelessness and in need of supportive housing, does not mean they are more likely to commit a crime than someone who is housed. These types of assumptions are stigmatizing and harmful.”
To this, Councillor Hammond said he was careful in his wording to specifically avoid the further stigmatization of the community members who require such services as supportive housing.
“Constantly, I am very, very clear about saying for ‘these neighbourhoods,’ ‘in certain circumstances,’ I am consistently about that,” Hammond said.
Ultimately, Hammond is adamant that there exists a crime problem that is directly tied to certain supportive housing initiatives such as Tiny Town.
“We either accept that there is a correlation there, or we call these people liars,” he said referring to the Times Colonist op-ed author.
However, he admits that he is no expert in the area of supportive housing, but he is trying to advocate for those who feel the need to increase their home’s security measures and repair vandalism.
“The thing is, I’m not the expert here,” Hammond said. “You know what my expertise is? Bullies and discrimination in the workplace.”
The councillor says he wants the BC government to be the ones to solve this issue as he says it’s their issue to fix.
“The thing is, I’m not the guy who should be answering this,” Hammond said. “[The Province] should be saying, ‘what are the problems and what do we need to do to address them.’”
As possible fixes, Hammond shared his thoughts that better security guards with more of a presence in the impacted areas as well as having the Province and BC Housing provide more supports could help the situation.
“My goal for the letter, which I said to the ministry, is, if you put in a program like [the Securing Small Businesses Rebate] for businesses, you put out $10.5 million, here’s a thought, how about some of that money go to people when their place has been vandalized,” Hammond explained.
“But I also put in there, they wouldn’t need this if when they put in supportive housing, it gave the proper resources and protections to the neighbourhood.”
Hammond told Victoria Buzz that he believes if that were possible, then neighbourhoods might be less reluctant to have supportive housing in their area.
“Right now, it’s like there’s a lottery and you lost it,” he said in reference to those living around certain supportive housing initiatives.
“You won the losing lottery when our government, with our tax dollars, puts into these neighbourhoods where they know that there are problems that are going to happen or there are problems that do happen and they’re not doing enough. I’m saying it’s not enough.”
“I am putting the onus on BC Housing and the Ministry of Housing.”
He added that he believes no minister or MLA would want one of these types of supportive housing facilities implemented in their neighbourhoods.
“We shouldn’t see that people lost the lottery because they are living somewhere—renting or owning—and these facilities are put in without the proper protections.”
When asked at what point this issue turns into a “not in my back yard” matter, Hammond said he would like those who see it that way to be the ones inviting supportive housing into their neighbourhoods.
“I don’t mind saying, I really get tired of hearing about the ‘NIMBY’ because after what you read from [the Times Colonist op-ed author], nobody should have to put up with that,” Hammond told Victoria Buzz.
“How dare someone say, ‘oh you’re just being a NIMBY,’ well let me tell you what I put up with. You take this into your yard and then talk to me about NIMBYism.”
He concluded by saying that what he wants to see is well-planned supportive housing with more protections that people would more readily invite into their neighbourhoods.
