7th reply: Fred Haynes

Helo Mathew,

Thank you for your letter.

As a volunteer Director on the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness I understand the situation you describe. 

The solution is housing. 

Once housed the solution then include the need for appropriate supports.

These solutions need inputs from all levels of government, Federal, Provincial and Municipal.

For Sanich we are woking on bringing lands forward for housing. 

You have heard some details.

Visiting Regina Park Namegans several times and walking with Crissy I saw with my own eyes.

I also walked with the residents and saw with their eyes.

I continue to believe that by working together, respecting each other we can all arrive together at the best solutions.

I appreciate your interest and thoughtful letter.

Kind regards,

Fred Haynes

6th reply: Benjamin Allan

Matthew,

I want start by saying that I am grateful that your wife pulled through and that you and your new bride were able to start a family. My wife and I have been together for 6 year and have a 2 year old and I couldn't imagine what it must have been like to have something happen to a family member. 

My heart goes out to those who have fallen onto tough times and have found themselves without a safe space to call home. I understand that there isn’t a quick, one size fits all kind of solution. As such, I believe there needs to be a multi-faceted, collaborative approach, whereby we work with our neighbouring municipalities, the provincial and federal governments to provide the services and support these citizens require. We need to ensure collaboration on transportation and land-use decisions so that we increase density along our major corridors (Shelbourne, Tillicum, Quadra, Mackenzie) and at our main transportation hubs (Uptown, Royal Oak). We must also work with agencies like BC Transit to create Park and Ride/incentive parking solutions. Increasing the housing stock will first slow down the the ever increasing housing costs for buyers and renters then gradually as lower the costs as more and more housing units are built. This wont crash the market but soften it. Along with this increased density will come a more walk-able community as we make use of mixed use buildings. The new buildings also must have a variety of types on units with in them to allow families of different sizes live there. 

Benjamin Allan

7th reply: Fred Haynes

Hello Mathew,

Thank you for your letter.

As a volunteer Director on the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness I understand the situation you describe. 

The solution is housing. 

Once housed the solution then include the need for appropriate supports.

These solutions need inputs from all levels of government, Federal, Provincial and Municipal.

For Saanich we are working on bringing lands forward for housing. 

You have heard some details.

Visiting Regina Park Namegans several times and walking with Chrissy I saw with my own eyes.

I also walked with the residents and saw with their eyes.

I continue to believe that by working together, respecting each other we can all arrive together at the best solutions.

I appreciate your interest and thoughtful letter.

Kind regards,

Fred Haynes

6th Reply: Ned Taylor

Hi Matthew,

Thank you for getting in touch with me and sharing your concerns, I hear you. I'm sorry I have not responded sooner. I also want to say how sorry I am to hear of that horrific incident that occurred to you and your wife.

I was disappointed with the approach Saanich took to address the tent city at Regina Park. When that tent city first formed, our provincial government offered to pay for modular housing, which could have been used to provide people living at tent city an option that could better suit their living needs. The District of Saanich was required to donate land that we own or lease for the province to provide that funding, which we did not do. I'm disappointed that our Saanich Councillors did not take advantage of this opportunity until recently.

I also believe we need to address affordability in housing prices and tax rates, so that it's easier for low-income citizens to afford a place to live. You can see my full plan to do exactly that here: https://www.votened.org/platform

Thank you again for getting in touch with me, let me know what you think of what I've said, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts.

All the best,

Ned

5th Reply: Teale Phelps Bondaroff

Matthew,

Thank you very much for your email and question regarding homelessness in Saanich. This is an issue which I take very seriously and an issue around which Saanich has failed to be proactive.

Last year, the provincial government offered free supportive modular housing to municipalities facing high levels of homelessness, as part of the Rapid Response to Homelessness Program . All that municipalities had to do was to identify and supply land for the program. While cities like Vancouver and Surrey have already moved people into modular homes, Saanich failed to identify land. There is plenty of Saanich land available, but even if this were not the case, a Council that was committed to being proactive on the issue would have found another solution. I proposed one. 

Finally, last week, Saanich identified land for the program, unfortunately after all of the housing as part of the original offer had been allocated to other municipalities.

I outline this in my platform as well as other solutions I will implement to tackle housing:

https://www.teale.ca/platform

I also spoke in this very question at a recent all candidates meeting:

https://twitter.com/TealePB/status/1044641753490288640

We need to be proactive on housing, and I feel as though Council has certainly not been proactive. We are in a housing crisis and not a housing inconvenience, and must act appropriately.

We also need to take advantage of programs offered by other levels of government, as well as lobby them for increased resources and new programs should none be available.

Regarding camp Namegans specifically, moving people along without anywhere for them to go is not a solution to the issue. We need to ensure that adequate supportive housing exists for those who need it.

I found this story about Medicine Hat particularly informative and inspiring.
E
Thank you for your question and I hope that the new Saanich Council will act proactively towards the housing crisis.

I hope you have a good weekend,

Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff

Candidate for Saanich Council, 2018

www.teale.ca

4th Reply: Nathalie Chambers

Hello,

Thank you for your question, I would also go as far as to call a review of all of the lands Saanich owns to ensure that there are more locations in future for this kind of emergency housing. So our parks, conservation lands  do not become destroyed. 

Saanich needs to work with the province  ans find suitable sites for supportive housing. Police need to show patience and compassion when dealing with vulnerable people.  We can't continue criminalizing people simply because they are homeless.

In the Spirit of Saanich

3rd reply: Trevor Barry

Matthew Cook! (great name: a favourite hockey player of mine a few years ago, you may recall Matt Cooke) Anyways, so I am also a father of two: 5yo and 3yo. We used to live on Huxley.

I visited the 2nd camp, on "Prov Land near Ravine /Esso" - found it to be quite harmless during my stay.

 

We may disagree on the blame game a bit. I put this crisis squarely at the feet of senior government, and feel it is completely unfair that their long-term dereliction of duty has placed local government and community resources in the middle of a no-win situation.

Homelessness is a national problem. And the Feds have been slow to address it. $$ are needed.

Social Services (I don't need to tell you!) is a provincial matter (hey,. do you also work at Capital Park?)

 

... and thank-goodness an infusion of operating capital seems to have finally arrived.

Mental Health, Additions, Housing Market - more areas where the Province fell flat, and let things spiral out of control.

So, while I do not believe anything (even all my demand-side economics of equity - see my #SmartSaanich policy doc!) can eliminate homelessness entirely; (a) social housing needed to be built yesteryear, and isn't here yet. (b) encampment accommodation needs to be made available somehow in the meanwhile, and that should be a regional responsibility (place, not policing nor services); (c) mental health, additions, other social services, including opt-in institutionalisation - this should be available... again: senior levels of goverment.

What can "cityhall" do?  zoning and planning for land/space to build the social housing, the institutions, heck even the encampments.

However, you will not hear this candidate talk about using municipal tax dollars to pay the capital costs, nor hold the assets/liabilities of getting into that line of biz/services... support, partner, but not pay. Especially in a 13-fiefdom region on this matter.

Now, I believe that sunken costs must be ignored in decision-making (though not in strategic planning)- and that evidence-based decisions may lean on rationale recommending "spend X on <service>" to "save X+Y on policing/cleanup".  In that case, I'll temporarily let go of my concerns above... but will send a bill back to the Province; opening letter: "you're welcome for solving the problem financially efficiently for you, now here's what you owe us in reimbursement".  I'm being a little facetious here, but you get the idea. (forgive me, I'm operating on very little sleep).

Next, affordable housing.  To the extend that some folks end up homeless for no other reason than lack of safety net and no access to affordable housing- then we must blame out-of-control market.  It would be easy to say "its a supply problem" and "build baby build" but doing so would ignore a fundamental tenet of economics: that demand-side management is always more efficient (cheaper) than supply side investment.

 

What if the first $100k in assessed property value of a primary residence was "tax free".  Afterall, why are we applying a flat (regressive) tax on a Human right??

(corner of huxley/roland = tiny home... $50k to build, occupies little space... those folks should only pay for marginal peak consumption of utility services, in my humble opinion).

Anyways, Mathhew, I may be rambling at this point.

You got me in an off-the-cuff mood, and I didnt want to delay writing this response any longer.

All the very best,

Panem et Circenses, Ex Tempore, Errare Humanum Est, Bona Fide,

~Trevor Barry.

2nd reply: Vernon Lord

Matthew,

Thank you for taking the time to reaching out. My thoughts on the tent cities are laid out on my web page

 

GoVern2018.ca

 

From his web page:

 

Issues Facing Saanich

---

Tent City(s)

The interim injunction granted to shut down the Regina Park homeless camp is welcome and needed but is really no solution at all. There is a very real possibly that two to three months from now the camp will reappear and the process will start all over again. That is unacceptable, we in Saanich must work together to find a solution that works not only for the person's in need but also for the residents and taxpayers. Residents and businesses located adjacent to homeless camps should be given special consideration and their concerns and worries addressed. We have to come to terms with the fact that homelessness in Saanich is not a temporary  situation, but a reality of today's world. Saanich needs to get ahead of this, we can no longer 'react', we must 'act'. I propose that we work with the guidelines as laid out in the various court cases, dedicate a location (park, green space, etc), provide basic services to allow those in need a place of community with out fear of being removed. Time limits, drug/alcohol policy, shuttle service, support from various homeless agencies can all be fleshed out as we move forward. What is not acceptable is allowing homeless camps to be erected at will. 

Also recent in the Vancouver Island Free Daily goes in his thoughts about this more:

https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/news/saanich-council-candidate-wants-a-designated-public-space-for-homeless/

First reply: Rob Wickson

Dear Matthew,

I am very pleased to offer you my thoughts on the homeless camps in our city and the region.

In 2016 as the president of the Gorge Tillicum Community Association I worked a fellow board director, Dr. Trevor Hancock, the coalition to end homelessness and the social planning council to develop a set of recommendations for Saanich Council to consider.  Councillor Colin Plant put our recommendations on the council table where it had difficulty even getting a seconder.  Our top two recommendations were for Saanich to hire as social planner and to create a table where the conversation could begin seriously for the first time in Saanich.

The GTCA came to this work because of the large numbers of campers in Cuthbert Holmes Park that were hidden away from the rest of us and who were suffering more and more as they were being ignored or swept under the leaves.

My position on this topic remains the same.  The most import step is housing.  As young person, 17 years old in Yellowknife, I ended homeless for over 18 months.  I had a job and was not involved in any substance abuse.  The only thing that save me from a downward path was finding a home in place called the Hardy House where I shared a room with a different stranger most nights.  But I survived because I had a safe place to live.

We must find ways to find safe places for our homeless campers even if we simply build a well run camp.

Sorry to cut this short as I am picking up my 98 year old Dad from the hospital this morning and must move.  Please contact me directly for more on this topic anytime.

My first letter to the Candiates of Saanich

Dear Candidate:


I am writing to you today concerning the tribe of homeless people that have been wandering the municipalities of the Capital Regional District. It is neither their homelessness nor their wandering that I take offense to, but rather the enforcement of these conditions that, as a taxpayer in the Saanich, I find morally and fiscally irresponsible. Reportedly the police hours put into displacing the tent city from Regina Park, it’s replacement to the provincial land of the ravine, and the effort to keep them moving over to Goldstream park, has been recorded at 5 million dollars. As a social worker I know this is enough money to house around a 150 people in the private market for one, maybe two, years. This is a massive waste of money squandered on a pointless show of force that will not resolve any of the issues that these refugees of Canada are facing.

I also write to you as a father with 2 children under the age of 5 who live 3 blocks from the Regina park, and who were unscarred by their proximity to Camp Namegans. I write as a citizen who is considering who he shall vote for in the upcoming municipal election in Saanich, and most of all I write as a husband who, in the early days of his marriage, suffered a break-in where my wife was stabbed and nearly bled to death. All of which is to say I take the security of my home seriously, but that that seriousness does not mean that I shall live in fear of strangers who have done me no harm.

As a social worker in the city I am deeply aware of the struggles those on income assistance face when trying to enter the rental market, when the total income offered, if one is lucky enough to get on income assistant level II, is around $1200.00. The average bachelor apartment in the city is presently going for around $900, and when landlords have a viewing, 5 people turn up and two of them are web-page designers. It’s a humiliating market for those on income assistance, and the humiliation grows as we herd them around like cattle for the crime of not being able to afford the cost of living in one of the most expensive cities in North America. Vancouver is presently the third most expensive city on the globe, and as the woeful satellite of Vancouver, Victoria needs to exercise more discretion and valour.

I would like your response to this pressing issue of our community, and upon receiving your response I will post to a blog that will also feature the replies of all candidates in this election. If you do not offer a response, that too will be noted. It is my hope that our community will be able to have a tough conversation, a conversation that we presently seem unable to have given the level of fear and panic we are operating under. I have been in situations worthy of panic before, I know what an open artery looks like, we're not there yet. But we'll get there faster if we just invent a leper colony in the place where hospitality is needed.
Some might become outraged by the word "hospitality," as though we were to treat these people as guests, but the word comes from the Latin hospes, meaning both "stranger," and, incredibly, "enemy." To offer hospitality is welcome the stranger who could be enemy. Hospitality is the point where you decide whether you make enemies or offer compassion.

In the coming years, I hope that this exchange will be something that I could point to as something redeeming and that the events of the past week will stand out as a blip in the radar; a time when, out of fear and loathing, our government took wrongful steps to attack the poor, and then, in the face of moral outrage from a public who sought solutions from their politicians as opposed to punishment, correct their egregious actions.

Yours in the risen Christ,

Matthew Cook, RSW