Paul Holm has spent enough nights on the streets of Victoria to know it’s not something he wants to do with winter fast approaching.
“Last winter I spent a lot of time outside at night,” he told Global News.
“If you are on the street and you don’t have a good immune system you are going to get sick. There’s walking pneumonia going on right now.”
Holm has secured shelter through the local Boys and Girls Club this year, and while it’s not a good fit — his wife isn’t allowed to visit him there — it’s better than freezing, he said.
“I will not spend the night on the street, I will do whatever it takes.”
Holm is just one of scores of unhoused people across the Capital Regional District, most of whom are relying on the City of Victoria for shelter and social services.
Last week, the city’s mayor and council took a shot at surrounding municipalities who they said aren’t pulling their weight in supporting the homeless.
That came after it emerged that other municipalities were putting unhoused people in taxis and sending them downtown during extreme weather, rather than setting up their own emergency shelters.
“It was a nightmare for us, we were full, and we learned that other municipalities were dropping people off here,” Victoria city councillor Krista Loughton told Global News.
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“Come on guys. We all need to do our part here. And there are unhouse people in every municipality in the CRD, and they all need to do their part.”
Victoria wrote to the regional district asking it to set up more regionwide shelter spaces, and separately, to neighbouring Saanich which is both geographically larger and more populous than Victoria, but is home to just 25 shelter spaces compared to Victoria’s 350.
Victoria is home to at least 80 per cent of the shelter spaces regionwide.
Loughton said there has been no response since then.
“There has been nothing. It’s disappointing. And I am disheartened by it,” she said.
“In Saanich they could add extreme weather response spaces to their preexisting shelter … but they could also stand up a warming centre just like our fire department does every year, and every municipality could do the same thing.”
Significant work has been underway in the City of Victoria to break up an entrenched encampment along Pandora Avenue that became a flashpoint this summer when first responders refused to enter the area without police escort.
Since then, everyone living on the street has been approached by BC Housing, Island Health or the Our Place Society and offered shelter, said Our Pace spokesperson Grant McKenzie.
Enough people have taken the offer that Our Place’s facility is already full with an 11-person waiting list, McKenzie said.
“The people who are left on the street are really the most complex needs — we are seeing a lot of mental health issues, severe mental health issues, we are seeing a lot of people who have suffered injuries … and we are also seeing some people who fear for their safety,” he said.
“We have a couple of women who are huddled together, that’s their safety and protection, and they don’t necessarily want to go into a mixed-gender shelter.”
But while outreach workers have made “inroads” in addressing the most severe street homelessness downtown, McKenzie said there are many more people still living outdoors across the region.
He said there is no question that the need for more shelter spaces across Greater Victoria is urgent.
“There’s people living in the woods, people living in doorways, people hidden away under bridges,” he said.
“Without the support of all the other municipalities you are going to see more people huddled in parks, in doorways and on the streets, which is exactly what housed citizens don’t want to see — so we all have to step up and do our part if we want to help this really vulnerable population.”
Holm, who went to school in Saanich, said he’s living proof that people in need come from across the region, including extreme weather shelters, women’s only shelters, and facilities that accept couples.
“Everybody should throw in and try to help, especially our outlying communities,” he said.
“This ‘not in my backyard’ stuff, well, the world has changed. It is in your backyard now, so maybe you should try and help.”
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