{"id":13049,"date":"2020-10-04T14:21:49","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T18:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=13049"},"modified":"2020-10-04T19:51:58","modified_gmt":"2020-10-04T23:51:58","slug":"eelection-2020-issues-tent-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/eelection-2020-issues-tent-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2020 Issues: Tent cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n

The\u00a0BC Liberals<\/a>\u00a0are calling for an immediate end to the tent cities that have sprung up in\u00a0Campbell River<\/a>, as well as larger cities like Vancouver<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Victoria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

BC Liberal press release<\/h2>\n

In a\u00a0press release<\/a>, Roxanne Helme, the BC Liberal candidate for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, said, \u201cThis is a matter of public safety. Each unsupervised 24\/7 tent encampment is an extremely dangerous place to be.\u00a0 We know people are smoking drugs in nylon tents; criminal elements have infiltrated the camps to prey on the vulnerable people within them; there is violent crime, in addition to drug and property crime, hiding within their walls; they are unsanitary; there is no compliance with public health directions in response to\u00a0COVID 19<\/a>\u00a0and so the list goes on.\u00a0This not to mention that the 24\/7 tent encampments are preventing the use of our parks as they were intended and that they are damaging their delicate ecosystems in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Helme added, \u201cthe only \u2018solution\u2019 that John Horgan and the NDP have come up with is to warehouse some of the homeless population in derelict hotels without sufficient supports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the suggestion \u201cthey must be appropriately housed,\u201d she did not explain where the people in these camps would go.<\/p>\n

The BC Liberal candidate for North Island,\u00a0Norm Facey<\/a>, is not available for comment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Photo from Campbell River homeless camp \u2013 courtesy City of Campbell River website<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Homelessness in Campbell River<\/h2>\n

Campbell River\u2019s homeless population<\/a>\u00a0is now probably closer to 100 than the\u00a081 listed in 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Only a fraction of these live in the city\u2019s \u2018homeless camp.\u2019<\/p>\n

Sue Moen<\/a>, from the\u00a0Campbell River and District Coalition to End Homelessness<\/a>,\u00a0recently explained that there isn\u2019t a \u2018typical\u2019 homeless person.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople become homeless for every reason that there is a person experiencing homelessness. It could be fleeing violence, family break-down, fire, flood or an expected loss of employment,\u201d said Moen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHomeless, according to the definition used by BC Housing, includes people who are precariously housed, or couch surfing, or aren\u2019t paying rent directly to a landlord. They may be sharing a room, but their name isn\u2019t on the rental agreement. They don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll have housing for the next thirty days \u2026 Also, there are a lot of people who are living in vehicles, RVs, and some even in campsites. If they are off the beaten track and do not connect with services, they sometimes do even consider themselves homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city was thinking of setting up a better tent city, using protocols to protect the residents from COVID,\u00a0 last Spring.<\/p>\n

Enter BC Housing<\/h2>\n

A provincial agency,\u00a0BC Housing<\/a>, came forward with a more permanent solution.<\/p>\n

BC Housing, the City of Campbell River and the Vancouver Island Mental Health Society<\/a>\u00a0are partnering to build 50 new homes with support services for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness at 580 Dogwood Street.<\/p>\n

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\"An<\/a>

Photo credit: artist\u2019s depiction of affordable housing being built for homeless people, or people at risk, in Campbell River \u2013 courtesy city of Campbell River<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The province is also funding two other Campbell River building projects that target specific needs. The\u00a0Fir street residence<\/a>\u00a0will have 49 units for women and children fleeing violence.\u00a0Linda\u2019s Place<\/a>\u00a0will have 27 units for people with low to moderate incomes, including those with brain injuries.<\/p>\n

In addition, BC Housing purchased the\u00a0former Rose Bowl restaurant<\/a>, in Campbell River, as a transition house with beds for 20 houseless people until more permanent accommodation can be found.<\/p>\n

At a meeting last summer,\u00a0Kristi Schwanicke, Coordinator of the Campbell River & District Coalition to End Homelessness<\/a>, \u201cAll of these projects, coming online so quickly, will have a tremendous impact over the course of the next six months.\u201d<\/p>\n

BC Housing Projects on Quadra and Cortes<\/h2>\n

The projects BC Housing is currently funding on\u00a0Quadra<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Cortes Islands<\/a>\u00a0are for seniors rather than homeless people.<\/p>\n

\n
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The proposed Rainbow Ridge development on Cortes Island \u2013 courtesy Cortes Community Housing<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption>However a 20 unit project in Mansons Landing is, at least in part, a response to Cortes Island\u2019s seasonal homelessness problem. Every year, tenants are evicted from their homes during the warmer months, to make way for the more lucrative tourist trade, are forced to set up tents,\u00a0 couch surf of find some other accommodation until the season is over. If their property is rezoned, the\u00a0Rainbow Ridge<\/a> project will be seeking funding from BC Housing.<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales The\u00a0BC Liberals\u00a0are calling for an immediate end to the tent cities that have sprung up in\u00a0Campbell River, as well as larger cities like Vancouver\u00a0and\u00a0Victoria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":13051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[225],"tags":[1750,579,370,577],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13049"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13049"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=13049"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=13049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}