Compassion has been shown in abundance for the residents of the tent city on the provincial courthouse lawn. Is there any compassion left over for their neighbours?
After unsuccessfully seeking an injunction that would order the campers removed from the site, the province has decided to manage the area. It has hired on-site support staff from the Portland Hotel Society to help the tent-city residents stay safe, get the help they need and make the transition to housing.
The tent city is a symptom of a problem, not the solution. Making it a more comfortable and welcoming place is not the way to solve the problem, but has the potential, as some critics have warned, to draw homeless people from elsewhere and make it a permanent fixture.
And that support is being provided by a Vancouver nonprofit that was found in 2014 to be poorly managed financially, with thousands of dollars spent on lavish hotels, limousine rides, expensive dinners, parties and even a trip to a Disney resort for staff members and their families. The Portland society should not be saddled forever with that stigma 鈥� the executive and board were replaced after the damning audit 鈥� but it shows how easily a large organization, even a charity, can lose sight of its goals.
And the chief goal of the tent-city effort should be to move its residents to better places, sooner rather than later, for the good not only of the campers, but also of the people who live and work around them.
Safety, support and housing were concerns high on Stephen Hammond鈥檚 list when he spoke to Victoria city council Thursday. The visibly angry Victoria resident recited a litany of problems encountered by him and others who live near the tent city. Those concerns include break-ins, theft, being accosted by people with weapons, disturbances in the night, needles and human feces found on people鈥檚 property, and people shooting up in public.
Hammond said the situation has forced him to move.
鈥淲e expected to live out our lives here,鈥� he said. 鈥淭ent city and Mount Edwards have forced us out of our beautiful home. We are now leaving the downtown for a safer environment.鈥�
He is part of the Mad As Hell neighbourhood group that wants 24-hour police protection in the area around the tent city, and for the city to uphold the law, noting that cars have been parked on the street beside the camp for days on end without being ticketed.
Housing solutions have been offered to the campers, and some have taken advantage of that assistance, but others are holding out for something better. The vacancies left by those who moved out have been filled and the settlement has, in fact, grown in numbers.
Meanwhile, the people who have worked, saved and paid taxes, hoping to live in reasonable comfort in their homes, now live in constant nervousness, if not downright fear. Their concerns are not unreasonable; they are not cold and heartless. They have every right to expect that the law and the government will uphold their rights, and it鈥檚 understandable if they feel betrayed and neglected.
That doesn鈥檛 mean we should turn away people who need help or require them to prove residency. And the judge was right in not ordering the tent city to be swept away immediately, as that would merely shuffle the problems to a different location. Solutions are needed, but those solutions should not include the continued existence of the tent city in its downtown location.
The province and city have heard the call from campers who want help in finding homes and improving their lives. The tax-paying, law-abiding permanent residents of the downtown area should also be heard.
