Shut down of Victoria homeless camp puts spotlight on poverty, activist says

A court order forcing dozens of people to pack up and dismantleVictoria's tent city on Monday hasn't diminished the attention thecontroversial site has drawn to the growing problem of homelessnessin Canada, an anti-poverty advocate says.

The hodgepodge of tentsand tarps on the lawn justoutside the court house in British Columbia's capital drew nationalattention to the number of people sleeping on the streets.

"We've had people sleeping in the parks in Victoria, indoorways, for years and years, and because it was so disparatethroughout the community it just wasn't noticeable and people reallydidn't react in the same way as they did when they saw the direpoverty and people there all together," said Kelly Newhook,executive director of Together Against Poverty Society.

"It was impossible to ignore."

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Camp began spring 2015

The camp grew from a few tents in the spring of 2015 to dozens ofmakeshift shelters.

After a legal dispute between the province and anti-povertyactivists, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled on July 5 that thoseliving in the camp must leave by Aug. 8 due to declining safety andsanitary conditions at the site.

The B.C. government was spending $184,000 per month on upkeep forthe site including the cost of collecting garbage and supplyingportable toilets, said Ministry of Housing spokeswoman LindsayByers.

That figure also funded community workers from the Portland HotelSociety to help connect campers with housing and other socialservices.

With the shutdown of the site looming, many of the campers havemoved into new affordable housing facilities funded by the province.

Housing activist Christine Brett, who has been working at thesite a minimum of five days a week since December, said there aremany success stories as people have moved from the camp to socialhousing.

"I've seen people that have come back super happy and reallycontent to be in a place where they can call their own," she said.

Stagnant income assistance

The province said itinvested $26 million last year to create70 new units for shelter and transitional housing.

But Brett said moving people into shelters doesn't resolve thepoverty that leads people to become homeless and calls it thegovernment's attempt to "sweep it under the rug."

The last homeless count in Victoria found over 1,300 peopleliving on the streets or in shelters in February, Newhook said.

Nationally there are an estimated 28,500 people who are homelesson any given night and least 200,000 individuals who accessemergency shelters or sleep outside in a year, according to theCanadian research group Homeless Hub.

Part of the problem, Newhook said, is that government incomeassistance and disability payments are not increasing or have beenstagnant for years in some jurisdictions at a rate that reflectsthe rising cost of living in many cities.

'Housing is a human right': advocate

A short supply of affordable rental or social housing in many cities and the current legal allowance for rental price increasesyear over year also puts those who live on the poverty line at riskof homelessness, she said.

"Housing is a human right," Newhook said."If we treated that seriously in Canada we'd see an improvementin standard of life of all people."

With the federal government having promised to develop a nationalhousing strategy, Newhook hopes some of these issues can eventuallybe resolved.

However in the short term, some campers in Victoria remain uncertain with where they will sleep come Monday night.

Brett said at least two youth who are promised spaces in newtransitional housing are unlikely to move before the deadlinebecause the units are not ready yet.

"When the province can't even honour its own promises to thecourt, I mean, why would the province expect more out of thecitizens?" she said.