Leann Trenchard says she should have been expecting it, but she was stunned when Victoria city council voted Thursday to allow social-services centres in all city neighbourhoods.
Council voted 6-3 to adopt amendments to its zoning bylaw that will allow temporary social-services centres anywhere in the city, as long as they meet certain conditions.
The conditions include capping the number of shelter spaces at 40, ensuring the service is more than 100 metres from other social-services centres, maintaining the property and ensuring the operation does not negatively affect the neighbouring community.
Trenchard, a 27-year resident of the North Park neighbourhood, said she was shocked the city would charge ahead with the zoning changes in the face of opposition to a social-services facility at 2155 Dowler Pl., in her neighbourhood
“I guess I was hopeful that some more consideration would be given to this, so I’m extremely disappointed it wasn’t,” Trenchard said in an interview shortly after the vote. “The citizens of Victoria are not being listened to.”
North Park residents have protested at city hall about the city’s involvement in the Dowler Place facility, written letters, sent email, appeared at council and met with Mayor Marianne Alto to express their concern over the facility’s proximity to where children play, and the lack of public consultation before it was announced.
The city spent $300,000 to help SOLID Outreach Society buy the property just north of Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, and will contribute up to $1.8 million in operating funds for one year to SOLID, which will own and run the facility.
The facility will help connect people to subsidized housing, market-rental subsidies and drug-treatment programs, and provide support for people going to health appointments.
The space, which will offer food, will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and fit about 50 people at a time. The property will be fenced and security will be provided by SOLID.
Trenchard said her biggest concern is about the number of children who live in the neighbourhood, and the fact that the facility is on a walking route for people to access Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, Crystal Pool and Central Park.
She dismissed the suggestion that it’s unlikely the city would be able to help set up another centre like the one on Dowler Place.
“What [Alto] is saying actually shows intent to put these in other places throughout the city in the way it was put in on Dowler — no process, no consultation. It was just very poorly done with no consideration to the neighborhood and how this location affects people that live here as well as people that use this area.”
During deliberations before the vote Thursday, Alto stressed the amendments are designed to be temporary — city staff are exploring how to incorporate regulations for social-services centres into a revised Official Community Plan next year — and to allow the city to act quickly if the right opportunity to establish a new centre arises.
“And let me say that I have very grave doubts that they ever would arise, given the conditions that are being placed on them,” she said. “That being said, should that miracle occur, I think it is important for us to be able to be nimble and respond to that while we are waiting for our good staff to do their work.”
In the face of negative feedback over the last few weeks, Coun. Jeremy Caradonna also tried to stress that the intention is not to open new social-services centres in every neighbourhood, nor is it to turn Dowler Place into another 900-block of Pandora. Tent encampments are entrenched around social services on that stretch of Pandora Avenue.
“The idea here is to seize opportunities when they come up in an interim fashion, because I believe we’re feeling collectively as a city, as a government, that we’re not seeing the urgency from the province,” he said. “So we are stepping up yet again in an interim fashion.”
He said the move is an attempt by a city to try and reduce the suffering of those living on the streets and in the parks.
Councillors Marg Gardiner, Chris Coleman and Stephen Hammond all voted against adopting the amendments.
Gardiner called the move “wrong-headed” and suggested having city staff decide on social-services centres, rather than having council do it in public with public input, flies in the face good governance.
“This approach goes beyond the provincial mandate to prohibit public hearings,” she said. “It denies residents and business owners a voice in decisions which may impact their lives in significant ways.”
Gardiner also said she would never back financing or land-use initiatives that support illicit drug use.
Coleman said he would like to slow down the process and see how the Dowler Place project works before adopting the changes.
“If we get that one right, people will become a little less anxious. But at the moment, pushing this forward right now increases the anxiety level for a lot of people and I think that we have more work to do,” he said.
Note to readers: This story has been corrected. Coun. Marg Gardiner said she would never back financing or land-use initiatives that support illicit drug use. Her position might not have been clear in the previous version of the story.
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