July 23, 2024

“We are in a homelessness crisis … Therefore, it is recommended that … the City immediately amend its zoning regulations to permit social service centre use throughout Victoria …” 

So begins a radical proposal to insert shelters or “social service centres” throughout Victoria neighbourhoods. 

This proposal, forwarded by Mayor Alto, will do more to change the quality of life and character of our City and its neighbourhoods than any action taken by this or any previous City Council. And the most radical change proposed by the Mayor is to disallow community or neighbourhood input to “social service centre” zoning amendments.  

Two documents released on Friday, June 14th, provide context for this plan. The first was a press release titled “New Access Hub for Street Community”.  The second was Mayor Alto’s motion put before Council titled “Zoning for Social Services for Unhoused Victorians”.

The first introduced a new “service centre” sited on Dowler Place in North Park. Nearby residents were blindsided by the press release about SOLID’s purchase of the property and the City’s $2.1M financial support to operate the facility. (SOLID is a not-for-profit that provides services by and for people with lived experience of street life.) The existing zoning of the Dowler property meant rezoning was not needed for the centre to proceed.

At a community meeting held on Tuesday, July 9, with Mayor Alto and SOLID management, it was confirmed that illicit drug use would be permitted at this site but SOLID staff would not provide drugs. The site was not deemed a “formal consumption site” as those consuming drugs would not have medical supervision. Oversight and maintaining order would be “peer-based”.

The second document was the Mayor’s proposal which directed City staff to work on zoning amendments to permit “social services for the unhoused” to be created anywhere in the city without an open public process. 

The Mayor’s plan went forward with a Council vote of 6-2.

City staff were directed to consider social service centres for the unhoused in the Official Community Plan (OCP) update, and to bring forward zoning amendments to permit centres throughout Victoria subject to four conditions: 

• shelter spaces be limited to 50 per centre (Note: City staff later altered to 40), 
• a centre must not be within 100 meters of another centre,
• each centre must operate under an agreement requiring the property to be well maintained, and
• nuisances or negative impacts must not occur. 
  
  

These zoning amendments were to facilitate fast-tracking for new sites as an interim process until the OCP update is completed.

Given the Mayor’s statement of urgency, the matter is to come before Council this week in the form of bylaw readings. 

Staff’s motion, including the proposed bylaw, provides a shelter limit of 40 shelter spaces. The bylaw has as its purpose to amend the Zoning Bylaws “to allow social services centres in all zones”. 

How many of these centres will there be in Victoria? I am afraid that the number is open ended. What we are seeing now is the consequence of the previous Council’s invitation to anyone anywhere who is unhoused to “come to Victoria”. 

The Point in Time Survey (March 2023) suggests that only 19% of those experiencing a level of homelessness were from somewhere in the region. The others had migrated here from elsewhere. 

Earlier this year, I asked city staff how the number of people sheltering in parks compared to the number in March of last year. The number had risen by 43%.

I want to emphasize that I strongly support initiatives that improve the lives of those who find themselves without shelter, but proposals that are not focussed on rehabilitation and re-direction of the lives of those who suffer the indignity of living on the street will not solve the problem. I fear that the crime and disorder that we find in encampments in parks and the Pandora and Ellice areas will soon migrate to previously peaceful and safe neighbourhoods throughout Victoria.   

I have been a long-time advocate of citizen input to Council decisions and for greater transparency in City Council decisions. The approval of this type of social service facility without authentic public input is an outrageous and arrogant violation of our citizens’ rights and a dangerous precedent for future decisions.

The Mayor’s Plan sets us on a dangerous path.  Since there is little planning for rehabilitation, and while the residency is not to be “permanent”, those housed or serviced by the “centres” could be there for the rest of their lives, and the ever growing number of unsheltered people invited to Victoria will ensure that social service centres continue to grow and spread throughout our neighbourhoods.

Simply put, I found the Mayor’s plan to be an appalling idea. It needs a re-think. It needs community input. This plan is the product of a City Council which has expressed little respect for the residents whose neighbourhoods will be forever changed.

While the Mayor’s June motion suggested the zoning changes were to provide an interim process, nothing in the proposed bylaw suggests it is “interim”.

It is time to be heard.