Camping banned at more parks

Victoria councillors add Reeson, Quadra, but some say move is premature

Victoria councillors have agreed to add two more small city parks to the list of parks where camping will be prohibited, even though some thought the move is premature.

Mayor Lisa Helps proposed the idea that camping be prohibited in Reeson Park and Quadra Park, subject to B.C. Housing agreeing to keep open the 30-mat Out of the Rain youth shelter at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church and the 40-mat Cool Aid Shelter beyond the winter season.

The two parks generated complaints from local residents and businesses last summer.

So many people were hanging out — with belongings strewn about — in tiny Reeson Park at the foot of Yates Street in downtown Victoria that it acquired the nickname Chattel City.

Helps said for the most part, few people are sheltering in either of the parks now, probably due to the number of new housing and shelter units that have been opened and the success of new outreach efforts.

She said she has verbal assurances from B.C. Housing that it will keep open the shelters or an equivalent number of shelter mats after the winter season. Meanwhile, neither of the shelters has been operating at capacity, she said.

“The Out of the Rain shelter is only at 35 per cent capacity. So that means youth between 15 and 25 who find themselves sleeping in corners of parks in unsafe environments, there is space for them in this shelter,” she said.

But some councillors thought the ban was either premature or unnecessary.

“We’re in a really much better position than we were not too long ago, but I can’t help feeling that this is premature,” said Coun. Marianne Alto. “I’m not convinced yet that we’ve made enough progress to start closing more and more spaces,” she said.

Coun. Ben Isitt said he wanted to see hard data on park sheltering rates. “I just don’t see evidence justifying this bylaw amendment at this point,” said Isitt, adding his preference would be to postpone consideration.

The city has been struggling with the issue of campers in parks since 2008, when the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to prohibit someone from erecting temporary shelter in a park if there are no available shelter beds — a decision upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal in 2009.

Coun. Geoff Young said as the city limits the number of parks where sheltering is allowed, it increases the risk of a court challenge.

“If we’re in sight of the goal of having adequate sheltering space, it seems to me that what we want to do is be able to prohibit camping in all of our parks for all of the year,” Young said.

In their report to council, Helps and Coun. Margaret Lucas said that since December last year, police have noticed a significant reduction in the number of people sheltering overnight in parks.

“At this time, they have found persons from time to time sleeping in Beacon Hill Park, including Holland Point. Otherwise, they are not finding large groups of folks sleeping in any other city parks,” the report said, adding that there are, however, lots of people sleeping rough on streets, in doorways, under bridges and along the Galloping Goose corridor.

Lucas has met with residents and businesses near the two parks, who last summer and fall lived with problems such as noise and disturbances, health concerns regarding discarded needles, feces and urine, and trespassing.

“I think there’s an opportunity for people to enjoy these parks — everybody. This is not to stop people from enjoying and going to the parks. It’s about the overnight sheltering,” Lucas said.

Councillors also agreed to write the province to commit to an adequate supply of shelters or housing with supports to meet needs of the unhoused.

Public parks and green spaces where overnight sheltering is prohibited include: Haegert, Kings, Cridge, Arbutus and Moss Rocks parks, Franklin Green and Pioneer Square.