The Short Term
For now, I think the biggest issue around homelessness is to stabilize our harm reduction and shelter services. This will allow those with addiction and psychological problems to get the temporary support they need, and will make it easier for people who are homeless for other reasons to recover more swiftly. These services include an adequate amount of shelter space for the homeless population (with an eye toward moving people into more stable housing), a fixed needle exchange and safe injection site, and the maintenance of our various food-related services.
There are two major points to consider in dealing with the long-term needs of Victoria's homeless citizens;
- Long-term, affordable housing is the only thing that will drastically reduce the number of homeless individuals and families. There are a great many people on the streets who have simply fallen on hard times, and need an opportunity to get back up, and this cannot be accomplished with shelters or even supported housing. We must, if we are to permanently help any significant number of homeless, lower the average rent in Victoria to accommodate the working poor. This can be done by lowering the cost of new developments so that it is once again economically feasible to create new rental stock in Victoria, and the first step will be to sit down with communities and civic-minded developers to create a community plan that meets the needs of all of Victoria.
- Services for homeless youth and families are essential to the health of our community. These two groups are simultaneously vulnerable and full of potential for growth and prosperity. They are also part of the most neglected portion of Victoria's homeless population. I'm not an expert, and I don't know what services are needed here, but I am concerned, and this will be one of my priorities.
At this point, the political will in Victoria must strongly shift toward this issue.We've heard it said a thousand times over, but homelessness and the problems associated with it really does affect everyone. To enforce this point, I believe that City hall needs to seek more support from outside sources affected by issues contained within our municipal boundaries. The Province, the Federal Government, and the entire capital region including Victoria must come together to properly deal with this problem, and it needs to happen sooner than later.
Mayor's Task Force on Breaking the Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions
and Homelessness: http://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/tskfrc_brcycl.shtml
AIDS Vancouver Island Home: http://www.avi.org
A description of the AIDS Vancouver Island Street Outreach Services:
http://www.avi.org/sos
Our Place Society: http://www.ourplacesociety.com/
…and a list of their services: http://www.ourplacesociety.com/services.html
Cool Aid Society (A list of services can be found on the left hand side of the Cool Aid home page): http://www.coolaid.org/
If you have any questions about this page, or anything else on my website, please don't hesitate to email me at simonnattrass@gmail.com
