Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps is reflecting back on 2020 and some of the challenges the city faced as it navigated through the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the city dealt with numerous housing crises, and an uncertain economy due to lockdown restrictions, Helps reiterated that witnessing how pre-existing relationships within the community aided to manage the crisis was a silver lining.

“When you go through a struggle together, like a pandemic, relationships can either fragment or deepen, and we've been working in such a way as does that they've been deepened to think because we've been respectful and working hard together," said Helps.

The mayor emphasized that, while the pandemic tested and ultimately strengthened the relationships she currently held with different sectors of the community, those relationships were already strong coming into the crisis, and she considers that a positive of her past six years in office.

“I learned very early on in my role as mayor that the way to get things done is through building, essentially, loving working relationships with people from the business community, the nonprofit community, the province, the federal government. [And so], if we had not had any of those relationships when the pandemic hit, we wouldn't have been able to move so quickly in some of the ways that we did,” said Helps.

Tackling the housing crisis

One of the major issues impacting the city, that was exasperated by the pandemic, was the housing crisis. Since the beginning of lockdown, the number of unhoused people in Victoria has increased. Earlier in the year, disputes arose over the 24/7 camping in Beacon Hill Park by the unhoused community.

Helps states she approached the situation by hearing all opinions on the issue, and asking questions to ultimately try and find common ground. Most importantly, Helps states she put the issue into perspective.

“It's a very challenging situation that we find ourselves in, not just in Victoria, but in cities across Canada. So that was one thing that gave me perspective is, while there's a lot of frustration here, there's also frustration in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, London, Saskatoon, and I've been on calls with people from across the country. So that is one way of dealing with it is recognizing and articulating that, Victoria isn't unique,” said Helps.

Recently, another housing issue occurred when on Dec. 23, those sheltering in Central Park were forced to relocate to Royal Athletic Park due to flooding from recent heavy rain and snow. The city moved into action with the Victoria Fire Department and BC housing donated tents and cots to get a new encampment set up quickly. Helps credited the North Park Neighbourhood Association (NPNA), a non-profit society, for their swift action with volunteering the manpower necessary to set up the shelter.

“I think the biggest win is the North Park Neighbourhood Association, stepping up to and going way beyond their mandate of printing newsletters and organizing festivals and really stepping up to help their neighbours,” said Help. “So that, I think that that's the biggest win from my perspective, and now we need to support them to step back from that supporting role and get somebody in there who can support the people who are living outside, on a temporary basis until they're inside. So I think the North Park Neighbourhood Association were the big successes in the story of Central Park.”

Looking forward to the future

Helps explained that while the pandemic did emphasis some of the challenges that Victoria has faced in the past, the temporary nature of the situation has not swayed her approach or long term vision for the city.

“My main role, as I see it and the city's main role is to prepare for the future, to make sure that we've got a resilient community, that we've got an inclusive community, that we've got a prosperous community, and I don't just mean future for the next two years, or four years. I mean, the next 50 years. The world is going to change dramatically over the next five decades, we've seen some of that accelerated during the pandemic. And so that goal hasn't changed. If anything, the pandemic has made me even more resolute about the need for building resilient, inclusive, prosperous communities,” said Helps.