HOMELESS SURVIVING SUMMER AT SMALL CAMP IN VICTORIA PARK
It’s a struggle to find beds after winter emergency shelters close
VICTORIA With more than 10 bike trailers full of belongings, tents, blankets and even a drum kit set up curbside, a small block of Topaz Avenue has looked to some passersby like a growing tent city.
But according to the people staying there, the items mostly belong to three couples who cannot find housing.
“We’ve been promised places, but told it would be much easier if we weren’t together,” said Trevor Mac, who is staying in the park with his wife of 15 years, Sher Mac.
Agencies responsible for monitoring camping by homeless people say they are doing what they can with the resources they have, but more people are outside in the summer as winter emergency shelter beds are closed.
The Victoria Cool Aid Society said this week that it will no longer offer 25 emergency mats for people to sleep in the Rock Bay Landing common room starting Aug. 15. It says it has become too difficult to manage the increasing number of clients with complex addiction and mental-health needs.
The Macs, both in their early 40s, said they have been homeless off and on for five years since being injured in a car crash, losing their business and struggling with addiction.
They said there are other couples like them who stay in Topaz Park, as well as a few older men and some new people in recent weeks.
“I walk around and clean up rigs and things people leave,” Sher Mac said. “We don’t do that. We try to keep everything together.”
Most days, bylaw officers or police will arrive in the morning to remind campers to take down tents or move, but the process can take hours.
Topaz is one of several city parks where homeless people are allowed to shelter overnight. Tents and belongings must be packed up by 7 a.m.
Campers can park bike trailers along the road and sit in the park, as they were doing Wednesday morning.
The Macs said one of the issues is a lack of storage for belongings so they can get around to access meals, attend medical appointments and run errands.
“If you look away for a second, something goes missing,” Trevor Mac said.
Ideally, they would like to live in one of the buildings recently purchased by the province — such as the former Tally-Ho and Super 8 hotels on Douglas Street — that also offer social supports.
Trevor Mac is on an opioid replacement therapy program, but his wife said she still uses illicit drugs and would like to get help.
“I spend most of my day trying to get stuff so I don’t get sick. When I’m sick, I’m useless,” Sher Mac said, tearing up. “I haven’t been able to even charge my phone and talk to my kid in a month.”
Victoria police and bylaw officers and social agencies are aware of the homeless campers and said they visit daily.
“The reality is, it’s one of the parks in the city where people can camp overnight. These are people who often face mental-health and addiction issues and we’re also aware they need those supports,” Victoria police spokesman Bowen Osoko said. “Throughout the summer we see more people sleep in parks across the city — particularly due to the closures of emergency beds, and new people.”
Osoko said police officers will tell homeless people who can’t find shelter beds which parks permit overnight camping.
“It’s people trying to act within the law and we have a responsibility to tell them,” he said.
Rebecca Penz from the City of Victoria said there have been three complaints about camping structures in Topaz Park in the past three months.
“The city’s bylaw staff attend to Topaz Park every day to ensure structures are taken down and belongings are collected,” she said.
“The bylaw team co-ordinates with police, social services, Island Health and outreach services to connect folks in the park with the services they need.”
Janis La Couvée from the Hillside-Quadra Neighbourhood Action Committee said she has heard from neighbours who are concerned a “de facto tent city” is growing at the park.
“It started with a few people camping and then hanging out during the day and has grown to multiple sites throughout the southern part of the park over the last few months,” she said. “Everyone realizes it is a very thorny issue.”
Topaz Park was the centre of controversy in 2015 when Mayor Lisa Helps pitched the idea of setting up a temporary tent city in the park for the increasing number of homeless people on the streets.
Public outrage kiboshed the idea. Less than a year later, a tent city popped up on the Victoria courthouse lawn with more than 100 campers. The province tried to use the courts to shut it down and had to invest $26 million in housing before being granted an injunction.
The city’s bylaw staff attend to Topaz Park every day to ensure structures are taken down and belongings are collected.