Chilly reception for homeless campers
Mattresses set up for Goldstream homeless sit empty as camp moves to private land
About 20 homeless campers who left Goldstream Provincial Park on Tuesday rejected warm shelter beds in favour of setting up camp on the West Saanich Road property where Saanich mayoral candidate David Shebib lives.
All but one of 25 new mattresses on bed frames delivered to the Victoria Native Friendship Centre went unused. The shelter, staffed by nine people, was made available from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. with breakfast.
“We had one person in the shelter last night,” said Ron Rice, executive director of the Victoria Native Friendship Centre. Staff had feverishly moved in the mattresses, built storage spaces and erected security gates to ready the centre.
The centre had initially said it would take about 10 people from the encampment, but its one gymnasium would not be appropriate for couples, people who need gender-separated areas, or people with pets.
“They decided if they couldn’t all come, they were all going to stay away,” said Rice, adding campers opted “to stay with Chrissy” — camp organizer Chrissy Brett.
Shebib, who ran in all 13 regional mayoral races in 2014 and two in 2011, lives at the property, although he’s not the owner. He said he offered the tenters shelter because nobody else would. “They have nowhere to go,” he said by phone from Nanaimo, where he was witnessing the dismantling of an encampment. “All the politicians are blowing it. They have no proposals at all and they don’t know what they are doing.”
B.C. Housing Minister Selina Robinson said Tuesday it’s unfortunate the rest of the campers have ended up on the property of Shebib, a retired junk collector.
“It makes me sad,” said Robinson, adding she has no doubt the demand for the Victoria Native Friendship Centre’s beds will be high.
“It would be irresponsible to hold them when the people we are holding them for don’t want them, but there’s others who need them.”
Shebib’s cluttered 1.4-acre property is an unexpected landing pad for the homeless campers, who spent two weeks at Goldstream Provincial Park and five months before that at Regina Park in Saanich.
West Shore RCMP were at Goldstream to assist B.C. Parks staff, but their help was not needed, as the campers departed voluntarily.
Piles of camping gear were delivered Monday to the property where Shebib lives at 5090 West Saanich Rd.
The campers will stay for a while to “rest up,” said Brett, and as a form of protest to demand more permanent housing that will accommodate the different needs of the group, which includes four couples, some with dogs.
They hope to remain at Shebib’s property for a couple of weeks.
Brett maintains the municipal election campaign and Shebib’s part in it will draw attention to the camp and the housing and poverty crisis it represents.
B.C. Housing said shelter spaces remain reserved for the campers at a variety of locations, including Rock Bay Landing, Sandy Merriman Shelter, Victoria Native Friendship Centre and the Arbutus shelter. Campers could be shuttled to the shelter of their choice.
Rice said Native Friendship Centre staff believed B.C. Housing was gathering a list of other homeless people who needed the shelter space at the centre. “There was no list,” said Rice, who blamed a series of miscommunications from the ministry. “Unfortunately, B.C. Housing was focused entirely on Goldstream.”
Rice said the focus needs to shift to the city’s other homeless and working poor. “There are 2,000 other homeless people in this city that might appreciate the space we have here.”
At Goldstream, B.C. Parks staff are assessing the area the campers occupied, on the hunt for discarded needles, drugs or damage to the park. The campground has been closed to other people since Sept.18, when the campers arrived.
B.C. Parks wants to ensure that the park is clean and safe for families, neighbours and tourists to use again, Langford Mayor Stew Young said.