Patrick J. Schnerch

   Rich Coleman, the Minister responsible for housing made an announcement today that is a major step to house the homeless in Victoria, B.C. Canada. Victoria is expediting procedures for 170 units for the homeless. Today’s announcement was that the site at 950 Humboldt Street will be the new location of a 55 unit housing complex and have client centred supports to improve the quality of life for the hard to house.

   These units will be self-contained studios and one bedroom suites. There will be on site support and will be managed by Pacifica Housing Advisory Association. (PHAA) They were granted a 60 year lease and are exempt from property taxes for as long as it remains affordable housing.

   Pacifica has been the leader in providing affordable housing to the hard to house tenants for quite some time. They have hundreds of units on the island including Nanaimo. They have the management skills and experience to make this a successful project.

   Currently, the complex has 14 units. The tenants have all be found subsidized housing elsewhere. This is great news. Unfortunately, the news will hit the papers tomorrow morning and we will wait for the opposition.

   This is bound to tick somebody off. It is already zoned for housing, so this may be the fast track to actually helping the homeless to have a place to call home. This is the best news since the conception of the housing project in 2007. Cross your fingers.

   There is opposition for the proposed homeless shelter on Ellice Street in Victoria, B.C. Canada. The site has to go through a process prior to rezoning from a park to a shelter/housing. There could be a referendum or a petition. The NIMBYs chose the latter. They must come up with over 6,000 signatures to stop the site from rezoning by mid July.

   The park is under utilized and is in the light industry area of the city. This situation is now getting ridiculous. As mentioned previously, nobody cares about the mentally ill, addicted or homeless until it affects them directly. Now they are complaining.

   They are angry with what is happening on the streets, but are refusing to comply with any solution to fix it. They want their cake and eat it too. Discrimination and stigmatism is the basis of this opposition. They are not literate about the mentally ill, addicted and homeless situations and allow fear dictate their actions.

   The situation on the downtown streets will just compound upon each other until it looks like East Hastings Street in Vancouver. The citizens of Victoria have a difficult time looking past the blinders. The shelter is the first step to combat the housing problem in Victoria. There will always be a need for emergency shelter no matter if we house the 1,550 homeless people or not. If housed, the shelter will be available for those fleeing crisis and require emergency shelter. This temporary housing is an essential service.

   The fact that this rezoning is in an area off the beaten track should not affect anyone. This seems to be nothing more than prejudice. People have a hate on for anyone different than themselves and refuse to be associated with them. This includes having them in the neighbourhood. This is shameful behaviour and we think that it is them who are sick.

   This is not the shot in the arm that Victoria needed. It is the first city in North America to even consider making the needle exchange a mobile service. Victoria has been seriously affected by the NIMBY Syndrome. (Not In My Back Yard.) One side agrees that this is a major health risk for the increased spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. The other side is the public who do not want it anywhere they or their children will see them.

   If the system goes mobile in a couple of weeks, there will be a significant reduction in the number of needles exchanged. People are not going to wait on street corners waiting for the vehicle to show up. They need their fix now, come hell or high water they will share needles if they have to.

   There will be an increase in discarded needles on our streets. Some will use the drop off boxes, but not likely. There will be an increase in the cost of cleaning up the streets from discarded needles. It increases the chances of the general public to come in contact with the infectious material and become accidentally infected.

   Programs will be cut that once was used to help people to kick the habit. There is also the confidentiality issue where their identities were not broad-casted on a street corner. People are sensitive and don’t want everyone to know that they are an injection user. The chances of using the mobile services is low.

   About 1,500 to to 2,000 people are injection drug users. There are businessmen who would stop by the permanent site on the way to work. It was not just the homeless or underprivileged that use the service. Most injection users live in homes. Some may be in unstable housing and there are others who are homeless who use the streets to inject. There are no safe sites available. This not only for the users safety, but also the public.

   Public washrooms are usually restricted to who the staff allow to use them.  Parks, alleyways and behind dumpsters is fair game. The needle exchange does not provide a safe site, but they do control the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. A proposed permanent location like Pandora Street is an essential service.

   All of North America doesn’t believe in the effectiveness of a mobile needle exchange. Victoria is different. Drug addiction is not going to go away. It is a part of our society, like it or not. We must learn to adapt and use harm reduction techniques until they are ready to stop using. When they make that lifesaving decision, we must be there for them.

   The people who are not aware or educated about the pros and cons of a permanent site are the ones that bark the loudest. What they don’t realize is that they and their children’s health is at a higher risk by going mobile than it was walking past the permanent site. The chances of your child picking up an infected needle around the city is much higher that when it was at a centralized location. At least when it was at a central location, it would be easier to keep the area safe.

   There is fallout of such a facility. Businesses lost customers due to the clientele hanging around the entrance of exchange. There were closures and safety factors to consider. This did leave the area in dismay.

   The proposed site is a couple blocks away from a Catholic School and a seniors complex. This alarmed the neighbours and they quickly put the brakes on the proposal. With no place to go, the service is going mobile. What is your opinion?

   That basically sums up the housing project in Victoria, B.C. Canada. There are some involved with this project who are totally devoted to the plan. I honestly believe that Mayor Lowe is one of them. I also believe that equal attention should be dedicated to promoting the project and show the citizens of Victoria what they have to gain.

   It should also be laid out on the table what will happen if we neglect these problems. We have a great deal to lose if we choose to ignore mental illness, addiction and homelessness. Our city is already feeling the affects of this neglect from the past. It is now biting us in the backside.

   The whole idea of housing and supporting the needy is a necessary step to our new future. This new concept has been tested and proven effective time and time again in other cities. Our adaptation of this plan seems to have the seal of approval from all three levels of government and service providers including the business community. Yet, the citizens are not on board.

   The media has been reporting about these conditions for some time now and is not receiving much response from the public. It seems that the urgency of these issues are again being overlooked.

   City Hall should be receiving thousands of e-mails to Mayor and Council. This is the largest project dedicated to the homeless issue in Victoria’s history. What we do with millions of dollars in taxpayer money should raise a few eyebrows, but it is not. $90 plus million was spent by the police force in a 40 month time period on repeat encounters involving drugs and alcohol as main concerns.

   This kind of news should set the public on fire, but it doesn’t. The housing and support plan looks great on paper, but getting the task done seems to be a big problem. There has been very little follow up about the progress of the project. The slower the project moves forward, the faster they will lose their will and motivation to finish the plan.

   There are three locations which are in the process removing the red tape so that new construction of a shelter on Ellice Street, renovations on Store Street and Humboldt can proceed. This will still take a long time before they can be occupied. We need housing now. Those locations are not designed for a large number of people, only a handful will benefit. There will be an expansion of the number of people at the new shelter site up to 80 people plus 20 odd beds available for cold weather conditions.

   We are in desperate need of housing now. The problem will grow in numbers by the time these locations are available. If the city was serious, they would have obtained several sites for renovations since January of this year. Vancouver has bought several hotels destined for renovations in the East End since their announcement that they were going to do something for the homeless.  

   This attempt is too little, too late. We are slated for 170 units in the future. Exactly what they mean by units also includes beds at the shelter. If these are individual units, it will be a far cry from what is needed to house 1,550 homeless people by the end of five years. If those 170 units are slated for occupancy this year, that would be a considerable achievement. Commencement for the shelter will not go forward with construction until 2010 and renovations following at another location.

   The city should provide the facts about their goals so that everyone is on the same page. Temporary beds at the new shelter is not acceptable. Permanent housing is the only solution with the appropriate support. Temporary relief such as a shelter is not efective for many refuse to use the service. Many have had their shoes stolen while they were sleeping. Many feel safer sleeping in the doorway of a business.

   These new locations will have on site support. The shelter will also have provisions for those who are ready for employment. This is acceptable; however, how many more people have to die waiting? 

   There will be a new building available to house about 40 service personel. There will be doctors, nurses, social workers and police manning the stations. This new concept is designed to help those with mental illness, addiction and homelessness. This will be located adjacent to the homeless drop in centre on Pandora Street. This congregation of services under one roof makes access easier for those in need.

   The homeless shelter will be moving to a new location further away from the downtown core. There was a meeting about a location in the Rock Bay area which is inhabited by the prostitutes. They are also reviewing other locations such as the Gorge/Burnside area where the light industry is located. These areas have a high concentration of crime which can be contributed to the low income housing and the hard to place tenants that live there.

   The addition of this shelter to either of these areas will contribute to the ghettoizing of those locations. Apparently the Gorge/Burnside areas may still be close enough to the downtown core to to be effective to aid those looking for shelter.

   It is still sweeping the dirt under the carpet concept by the local government and institutions. They want a safe downtown, but are not willing to find a solution to the housing crisis. Instead of building a new shelter, they should find permanent housing and support these people under the Mayor’s housing project. This out of sight, out of mind concept is a familiar practice by the local government.

   The problem is not corrected, it is just moving far enough away so that the tourists do not see the sleeping bags on the street. If the housing problem was properly corrected, there would be no need to build new shelters. This is just a quick fix. It doesn’t solve anything. The money spent building a new shelter would be better spent on a permanent solution.  

   The shelter should only be for emergency and short term, not a way of life. It should not have the overwhelming population that it has now. More outreach teams are required to go to sites around the city and identify, house and support these people in need. Progress is too slow. There has to be significant advances to be effective.

   The needle exchange is going mobile because of the opposition displayed by the public for a permanent location. Several needle drop off boxes have been erected in the city for safe deposits. Neighbouring establishments and businesses have voiced their concerns, especially due from what has happened in the past. Many businesses closed their doors because of the activities outside the needle exchange.

   This mobile service will prove to be inadequate for they will have trouble locating the 1,500 to 2,000 injection users. A centralized location is necessary to be effective. Not all users are on the street or inject downtown. There will be a decrease in needles being exchanged and the increased risk of transmitting diseases are eminent.

   This is a new concept in Canada going mobile. Victoria, B.C. Canada will suffer from this initiative. We had a permanent location for the needle exchange for the last 20 years and have had great success and the use of the service was high. This kept diseases down within that population. Other cities in Canada have permanent locations. Victoria is the NIMBY Capital of Canada. (Not In My Back Yard.)

   You may have been wondering why I am writing about Victoria, B.C. Canada and its situation with homelessness, mental illness and addiction. Well, this situation is very close to my heart for I am a survivor of mental illness and alcoholism. City of Gardens: The Other Side of the Fence is my first book written while being mentally stabilized and sober.

   I wrote two other books while being very ill. I was diagnosed with manic depression/schizophrenia at the age of twelve. By the time I was in my early twenties, I was a full pledged alcoholic. I went twenty-five years without being properly treated which lead me to self-medicate with booze.

   These subjects are close to me for I have lived it. I experienced episodes of depression, disassociation, psychosis and alcohol abuse. There was a time that I was a danger to myself and others which was finally controlled by anti-psychotic medication. This was only six years ago.

   My first book, Adrian was written during a nine month mania. It was never edited or formatted. The draft copy was printed as is. I was spinning like a top writing through the night and anxiously getting the book published at any cost. The finished copy was a mirror of my mental state at the time. By publishing standards, it was a project still in progress and was not ready for print until my health improved.

   The second book, The Peaceful Warrior: Memoirs of a Damaged Mind and Soul was a memoir/journal of my life living with mental illness and alcoholism.  It was a collection of broken thoughts and memories conceived and written during various episodes of illness, including psychosis.

   The book was very intimate, poignant and honest. It revealed my most inner secrets for all to see. I unearthed my roots in hopes of revealing the cause of my inner pain. I wrote down everything that ever happened to me on paper and studied it.

   I broke into journal writings which captured precise moments of delusions caused by various episodes of illness. There were excerpts in the book from a time before I went on anti-psychotic medications. These entries were disturbing and interesting at the same time. It is very rare that a psychotic episode is caught in print.

   Mentally, I was starting to heal. Emotionally, I was a wreck. The book revealed the different pieces of the puzzle to form a big picture of what happened in my life. I was then able to accept the past and put it to rest forever.

   After being published, I had one more thing to do and that was to get sober. I admitted myself for detox and a 28 day residential stabilization program. I’ve been sober ever since and have turned my life around. I am now productive and became a respected member of society. I have survived.

   The plan to house and support 1,550 homeless people in Victoria, B.C. is a commendable plan. The most important issue is to have them fast tracked and placed into homes as fast as possible. Not only do they benefit from having a place of their own, it also reduces the concentration of homeless people in the downtown core. There is no prerequisite to be free of drugs or alcohol to be placed in a home. This is the new age of dealing with mental illness, addiction and homelessness.

   Treatment of mental illness and addiction is futile if they are not properly housed first. If their environment is unstable or not safe, there is no chance of administering treatment under those circumstances. Besides, you cannot force treatment onto anyone who is not mentally or emotionally prepared to do so. 

   Although the concentration of homeless people is being reduced downtown, it is moved to another location bring along with it the problems it had on Douglas Street. The details are not clear on how or where these people have been placed, but being dispersed throughout the community would reduce the intensity of these concerns in the new neighbourhood. It is clear that the city does not want to ghettoize a particular area with low income housing. They are more in tune with integrating them with the general population.

   This can be a bit traumatic for the new tenant trying to adapt to routines, rules and regulations. Some are unwilling to cooperate with the system which does not coincide with their personal beliefs. There are some that would rather sleep in a park than to take an apartment or room offered by the government. Not everyone is in favour of government policies and laws and we should respect their opinions, this is a free country. If they do choose to be placed in a home, there will be a transition period that may be difficult.

   Assertive support does not particularly mean detox. This support can be administrative, legal, or social.  Emotional support is very important, it should be backed up with guidance and  encouragement. It will take time to build up self-esteem and confidence. The important thing is to ensure that these supports are in place for them when requested. Frequent contact between the tenant and outreach worker must be maintained to monitor their transition.

   Not all will want any support at all. There may be a time when this will change; however , we must make it accessible and available when needed. We have to allow room for freedom of choice. We cannot dictate our beliefs on another person.  They are in charge of their own lives, all we can done is supply the basics rights and freedoms. This includes shelter, food and clothing. They deserve the rights to affordable housing. Not everyone makes $30,000 a year. Many are at the bottom end of the poverty line.

   This is not heir fault. If we took the time to listen to their stories, we would learn a great deal from them. Thousands more or living beyond their means surviving on credit cards and line of credit. It is only a matter of time when they will need help too. Homelessness is a reality for many and strikes fear in the hearts of others.

   Victoria, B.C. Canada is primed and ready to take action in housing the homeless, but what is the hold up? They have completed the surveys, done their research and finished their studies. The information was gathered and utilized into a working plan. What is so unique about this plan is that it also incorporates support for mental illness and addiction. On paper the plan looks great and would be welcomed by many.

   Apparently, they did house a good number of people under this new plan. So, there is progress, but the enthusiasm is a little low. What is needed is strong support and leadership from the federal government. We need someone to spearhead the project on a national level and bring the attention to the hill. We need federal backing for this project to be successful. The Mayor and co-chairman are meeting with the federal government in the very near future.

   These two men have the dedication and drive to see this plan through. It is every-one’s hope that they can receive support on a national level. The provincial government has been supportive in Victoria’s fight against mental illness, addiction and homelessness. The local government and related service providers are busy setting up services and an outreach support system.

   Things are happening, but there is much left to do in the 5 years allotted for this project. It is not known at this time is these efforts will have much impact by the time the 2010 Winter Olympic Games come to Vancouver. Everybody knows this is a quick fix, but that is what is required at this time. This is the stepping stone for greater things yet to happen.

   First of all, we have to house the 1,550 homeless people within 5 years which is a very short period of time for such a massive undertaking. The Mayor is also just as determined to ensure that these people receive the needed support as required. A lot of people within the system support the project and see it as a new generation of how we treat mental illness, addiction and homelessness.

   Providing awareness to the public about the project and the facts about these conditions is a tough sell. Many people do not want to get involved or hear anything about it. There are still fears and misconceptions about these people. There are some who are aware, but don’t know what to do. We have to reach these people and educate them about these conditions and tell them why it is so important to invest in our own community. 

   We need the backing of the business community and the people. Time for action is now. Unfortunately, Victoria is not ready for change. As important and crucial as this issue is, many people are still sitting on their hands.

   City of Gardens: The Other Side of the Fence is the new book that I am researching. By going over the blogs on this site you can see that it is an interesting subject. It is about how mental illness, addiction and homelessness affects society, in particular Victoria, B.C. Canada. It also details what the city is doing to address these problems.

   Victoria is only the third city in Canada that has implemented a plan to help the homeless after Calgary and Ottawa. The book will follow this 5 year plan from it beginning to its end. The city’s plan is to house and support 1,550 homeless people within 5 years.

   City of Gardens: The Other Side of the Fence interviews several people including some who are looking for homes and others from the media who understand the housing situation. The book tries to cover the issue from several points of view.

   It goes deep into the housing project uncovering its possible motives if it is an act of humanity or about dollars and cents. Some people are excited about the project, while others are skeptical that it will materialize at all.

   Apparently, there has been some movement by the local government towards making things happen. According to the plan, they were to house 50 people by now. I have yet to see any conformation of this. Apparently, there are 170 units available now for subsidized rent to the homeless.

   If this is correct, it will be the first time in many years that affordable housing was made available. B.C. Housing has been placing people in homes long before this project was introduced. Unfortunately, the waiting list is extremely long. Mayor Lowe is trying to fast track placements of these people in order to acheive the objective.

   There is also improvements towards addressing mental illness and/or addiction. The amalgamation of service providers in a centralized location under one roof makes access much easier between the different offices. There was the introduction of a couple more services to the system. There are also changes to policies being made to make treatment easier to access.

   There are critics who believe that this plan is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. There are many that do not have any faith in governments for the way they have performed in the past. For many years, these issues were overlooked and neglected.

   With the 2010 Winter Olympic Games coming to Vancouver, it is prompting these hasty actions to clean up the streets before the international TV cameras show up. Image seems to be the motivation to house the homeless not humanity.

   This book will follow the advances and progress as it happens. This is my project for the next 5 years. Check out this blog for the latest news.

   The homeless situation in Victoria, B.C. Canada is in crisis. The local government claims it will house and support 1,550 people within 5 years. Should we wait for the action or inaction of our governments to fulfill their promises, or should we do it ourselves.

   These promises are often not met by these governments. When the people get frustrated from these inactions, they take the matter in their own hands. It is the organized groups of people focused with a solution that house the low income, feed the hungry, and clothe the poor. When the people become organized, the governments usually fights back with opposition of bureaucracy.

   Massive food surplus is thrown in the garbage everyday due to unsound red tape and bureaucracy. Empty buildings are rotting for years while people are dying on the street from exposure. People are being institutionalized because they don’t think the way we want them to. Others are thrown in jail due to the results of a medical condition.

   It is the grassroots organizations that address these issues with common sense. If you are hungry, we will give you food. It is that simple. Do you think a starving person will care if that sandwich is leftover from a business meeting because the fat people don’t like sprouts? By law, that plate of sandwiches have to go in the garbage. Many people feel that some of these regulations are plain dumb. That hungry person will rummage through the filthy dumpster to save that sandwich. Wouldn’t it be better to package it up in plastic wrap and give it to them? The government is worried about health regulations. Who is regulating the dumpsters?  

   It is the people who raise funds to purchase abandoned buildings to renovate and prepare for in-habitation. The government doesn’t like that idea either. There are rezoning laws, feasibility studies of how it will affect the community and who are they going to tax? Capital gains tax laws and enough red tape is involved to hang yourself.

   Therapeutic communities for the homeless, mentally ill and addicted see tremendous opposition from governments and the ignorant. It is the people who make these things a reality. We don’t need costly surveys and studies to tell us we have a housing problem. You can see that downtown.

   It is these grassroots organizations that provide the support to those in need. Churches, charities and non-profit groups only have these peoples’ best interest at heart. The governments are not much more than big business. If their pockets are not lined in silk, chances are that you will have trouble.