VICTORIA By March 31, the City of Victoria and the province have committed to housing all unsheltered people living in the city. “I think the latest number that BC Housing has on its list is over 200 (people),” said Lisa Helps, the Mayor of Victoria. “So somewhere between 200 and 220.” People are already beginning to move inside. The Save-On-Food Memorial Arena opened its doors to 45 campers on Monday. “The arena will hopefully be full by the end of the week,” said Helps. The Capital City Centre Hotel, which was leased by the province but heavily damaged when a fire broke out in a suite in early November, has been repaired. People will begin to move back into those units next week.
The arrest involved more than a dozen officers, including armed tactical members of the Greater Victoria Emergency Response Team. The man surrendered just after 2 a.m. after tactical officers used a flash bang device. No one was injured. Victoria police statistics show that 60 per cent of high-priority calls between June and November were focused on the city’s multi-unit residential temporary housing facilities and encampments in parks and areas in the immediate vicinity. Police responded to 4,384 priority one or priority two calls at the 13 locations between June shortly after the B.C. government purchased or leased several hotels in Victoria this summer to house hundreds of people living in encampments in Topaz Park and on Pandora Avenue and November.
Eby could not elaborate on any specific hotels or buildings being considered. An estimated 190 people are sheltering in Victoria parks but the province is preparing to house “significantly” more than that to ensure no one is left behind, Eby said. B.C. Housing is working with the City of Victoria to identify appropriate supportive housing sites. Eby said any new supportive housing facilities should not be in the Burnside Gorge neighbourhood, which is already home to several such facilities including the former Comfort Inn on Blanshard Street and several former hotels on Gorge Road East. “I’m very clear with both B.C. Housing and Victoria that adding additional sites at Burnside Gorge is not on the table so we need to diversify and find other sites,” Eby said.
The provincial government is looking to buy or lease another hotel or vacant residential building in Greater Victoria to house hundreds of people without homes before the end of March, says B.C.’s . . .
Chef Mike Radovanovic prepared about 400 plates of turkey, stuffing, gravy, vegetables and cranberry sauce that were served cafeteria-style to people sitting three to a table instead of six. Rogers Chocolates donated 700 individual chocolate packages. Any left over from Tuesday’s lunch will fill the stockings of people living in supportive housing facilities managed by Our Place, including the former Howard Johnson hotel on Gorge Road East and the former Comfort Inn on Blanshard Avenue. McKenzie said the former Comfort Inn is now housing 80 more people who were displaced by the November fire at the Capital City Centre Hotel. Sitting alone in the courtyard just outside Our Place’s dining hall, Shelly Steele tucked into her stuffing and described the difficult year she’s had. The 51-year-old said she was evicted in June from a supportive housing building on Humboldt Street and has been homeless ever since.