Province must take lead on homeless crisis

Despite fiscal restraints, we have a responsibility to end homelessness

By Rob Fleming, Special to Times Colonist

As a Victoria resident, local MLA, and former city councillor, like so many others I find the situation at the 900 block of Pandora to be completely unacceptable. It’s intolerable that in a decent and wealthy society people are forced to live in these conditions, and that some residents and businesses in the surrounding community are left feeling unsafe.

If we’re going to address the situation at the 900-block of Pandora, though, we need to recognise that two of the key reasons are provincial cuts to mental health services and the sporadic trickle of housing funds by senior levels of government.

For several years, the City of Victoria has led a coalition to address the homeless crisis and better coordinate service providers, police, church and business groups. There have been some laudable results. Many more people have been placed in housing because City Hall didn’t wait around for the province to accept its responsibility for mental health and addictions, social services and housing supports.

But we haven't got very far, because we can’t begin to address the crux of the problem without strong provincial leadership. B.C.’s Auditor General was very direct in his March 2009 report on homelessness, finding the province without a strategy and therefore recommending a comprehensive plan “linking performance expectations to the strategies and programs needed to be successful… and putting in place a lead agency responsible for accomplishing it.”

Now, well over a year since that report, those recommendations have languished and the situation has worsened.

The B.C. Liberals were warned cutting beds at Eric Martin Pavilion and out-patient services would have consequences. Last October, Police Chief Jamie Graham predicted more visibly homeless in the downtown.  Front-line psychiatrists and case managers resigned over these cuts. Clearly, without adequate mental health and addiction resources, the crisis we see on our streets will continue.

As a former City Councilor, I understand well the roles different levels of government must play and complexity of jurisdictional responsibility. But we will not see change if one level of government, in this case the provincial government, fails to do its part.

The B.C. Liberals have tried to say they can’t provide more affordable housing while in deficit, but the truth is that it’s all about priorities. While the B.C. Liberals are lavishing $650 million on a post-Olympic roof for B.C. Place, they have repeatedly refused to take steps like providing the funding for Our Place to remain open 24 hours a day.

The fact is, there are resources available for housing solutions.  B.C. has a $250 million “housing legacy fund” that earns little interest but could be used for the urgent problems of today without adding a penny of debt or new tax dollars.

As countless studies have shown, it costs a lot less for the provincial government to house the homeless than to manage a large homeless population through emergency interventions in our health care and justice systems.

But even more compelling than the fiscal reasons, we have the moral responsibility to step up the effort to eliminate homelessness for our province. As a community, we must work together to address this crisis.

But to do that, we need all partners to work together.  And that means the provincial government must commit to working with the City and with local organizations such as the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness by address the situation on Pandora and work toward a solution to the challenges of poverty, mental health and addictions.