If the accommodations offered the tent-city campers are not good enough, what is? Governments and social-welfare agencies have done their part; if that is not sufficient, the people most affected should come forward with practical proposals.
The tent city has been effective in putting the issues of housing and homelessness at the forefront. For too long, the provincial government has tried to ignore the issue 鈥� it took tents, campfires and makeshift shelters on a muddy courthouse lawn to prompt meaningful action.
About 120 people camping on the lawn of the Victoria courthouse have been given notice that they must leave by Feb. 25. B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman has announced the government will create 88 shelter and transitional housing units for the campers. The government will create 38 units of transitional housing at the Mount Edwards Court Care Home on 91原创 Street, which it bought from the Baptist Housing Society for $3.65 million.
The units will be operated by the Victoria Cool Aid Society and will rent for $375 a month. They are expected to be open by Feb. 23 and be available for about a year. Island Health will provide clinical support services at the former care home. B.C. Housing will pay 40 rent supplements to help people afford the housing.
Coleman also announced creation of a 50-bed shelter at the former Victoria Youth Custody Centre in View Royal.
The shelter will be operated by Our Place Society. People will have the option of camping in an outdoor courtyard, which has room for 20 tents. The new shelter, to be called Choices Transitional Home, will be open until the end of August.
Both places will provide three meals a day. Our Place Society will offer shuttles to the downtown core so that people won鈥檛 be stuck at the View Royal facility and won鈥檛 have to rely on public transit.
The accommodations are not posh, but neither are they paltry. They are not intended to be permanent, but the means to a better solution. It鈥檚 the hand up instead of a handout.
But some campers say they would rather stay in their mucky surroundings. One tent-city resident said some people can鈥檛 or don鈥檛 want to live indoors and prefer to live 鈥渁 rural existence in an urban environment.鈥�
But the tent city is not a rural existence 鈥� it鈥檚 the worst kind of urban squalor because it lacks basic amenities for health, hygiene and safety. The courthouse lawn and urban parks were not designed or intended to be campsites. They are badly needed green spaces that keep the concrete jungle at bay.
The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that the homeless should be allowed to sleep in city parks when not enough shelter spaces were available. The spaces are now available. Return the parks to their original function.
Perhaps some of the campers fear that if they go to the accommodations provided, they will be shunted aside and forgotten. That鈥檚 a legitimate concern; it should be addressed. Every effort should be made to ensure that the temporary housing is a springboard to something better. The province needs to come up with firmer policies to address homelessness and housing issues.
The solutions offered are not perfect, but the perfect is impossible, given that each person will have a different concept of perfection. Perhaps the very rich can choose exactly how and where they will live, but the rest of us have to adjust our expectations to our circumstances.
Progress is achieved a step at a time, and this is a step ahead. If someone has a better plan, they should bring it forward.
