Update April 8: Sooke council has approved a motion I brought forward asking the Mayor to lead a delegation seeking additional staffing at the Sooke Shelter to oversee as many as 19 ground-floor overnight shelter beds at Hummingbird Place (formerly known as the Hope Centre).
The original plan (2020) for the soon-to-open ground-floor hub space run by the Sooke Shelter Society had included a half-dozen 7 PM to 7AM emergency beds in a lay-out that would also feature a common area, commercial kitchen, washer/dryer/shower facilities and, critically, clinic space for support staff, i.e., mental health/addictions professionals and Shelter employees associated with the Reaching Home program who work with the unhoused, the working poor and those at-risk of homelessness.
It's now recognized that six beds are insufficient for current and especially potential future needs. In response, Shelter staff led by Sherry Thompson and Kristie Miller have re-envisioned use of the common space and pencilled in the extra shelter beds. These would be set-up as needed, operate year-round, and also double as an Emergency Weather Shelter during cold snaps in the winter. To run this expanded operation, the Shelter requires three additional employees as part of its contract with BC Housing.
Securing these new beds would be a game-changer in terms of delivering safe shelter for tenters who currently overnight in public parks and other locations around Sooke. The problem at Ed Macgregor Park detailed below has seemingly been solved for now, however individuals who camped there have relocated elsewhere, notably the private land behind Hummingbird Place. Add up the Ed Mac tenters (four per night on average in the early winter, rising to a high of 9 last summer) and those elsewhere, and the need is clear and growing. Some individuals want to live rough outdoors, but many want a safer environment.
The Shelter is home to an evolving group of support staff, residents, drop-ins and peers with lived experience. Collectively they're creating the kind of interconnected community that's central in the social determinants of health. This latest initiative is entirely worthy of new funding, we believe. [See the advocacy letter in full on pp. 193/94 of the April 8 council agenda.]
Feb. 1, 2024: Attached at the end of this post is the Sooke Homelessness Coalition's 2022-25 Strategic Plan along with a recent power point prepared for the first meeting of the SHC's Community Advisory Team (CAT). Facilitated by the SHC's Don Brown, the CAT includes reps from the Sooke Shelter, DOS Bylaw Services, Sooke RCMP, Sooke Food Bank, Sooke Chamber of Commerce, Sooke Council, local business and resident appointees (including the Rev. Al Tysick).
In the note below that I wrote to a resident and which inspired this post, I didn't mention that Budget 2024 will include a funding request for a third Sooke bylaw officer to ensure teams of two are available to do daily checks at tent sites ... necessary given the unpredictable behaviours of individuals who may be dealing with addiction or mental health issues ... in addition to responding to multiple other bylaw needs in our growing community.
The District has also developed a new homeless action plan that kicked off last week ahead of the schedule I mention in my reply below. Ed Mac's stage has now been cleared of the incredible pile of stuff (read: junk to some, treasure to others) that had accumulated there. Such situations will be monitored closely in future.
On Jan. 31, Councillors Beddows, Pearson, St-Pierre and I met in the park with approx. 25 neighbours profoundly concerned about tenting impacts on both the park and the surrounding area. The meeting was organized by the District's CAO Raechel Gray and Communications Coordinator Christina Moog. Two of the group's members are invited to the next CAT meeting to share more.
The text that Deputy Mayor St-Pierre read aloud at the Jan. 29 Coffee With Council included the following timely remarks about "homelessness and park safety" in Sooke:
"Speaking of challenges with housing and our unhoused population, on Saturday, January 20th there was a fire in Ed Macgregor Park where some members of our community are sheltering overnight.
Upon arrival, crews discovered an unoccupied tent engulfed in flames, which was quickly brought under control. The affected area was promptly sectioned off for further cleanup efforts.
On Monday, January 22, the District initiated a comprehensive park cleanup, addressing not only the aftermath of the fire but also the surrounding area.
District staff collaborated with the owner of belongings stored near the park’s amphitheatre, coordinating the securing of personal items while facilitating the disposal of remaining materials.
The District is committed to ensuring the safety of all park users, including visitors, staff, and individuals experiencing homelessness.
The public is reminded that, following a Supreme Court ruling, where there is limited accessible shelter space in the community, overnight sheltering in parks is permitted from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. However, it is crucial to emphasize that this provision is not intended to serve as a long-term storage solution for personal belongings.
The District has reestablished an action plan to provide increased maintenance to help ensure Ed Macgregor Park is a safe and welcoming space for everyone to enjoy. Those visiting the park can expect an increased presence of bylaw services and outreach workers.
Staff will continue to evaluate the park use and related maintenance while also understanding more about shelter capacity and available shelter space.
We are tracking these costs and will seek to recover associated expenses, if at all possible.
Over the weekend, MLA Ravi Parmar highlighted his commitment for helping us realize an integrated health centre in Sooke. The identified site for this facility is on Wadams Way by the library."
PS This year's Coldest Night of the Year march to raise funds for the Sooke Shelter Society is on Saturday, Feb. 24. Sign up or donate as the SSS strives to exceed the record $30k raised last year. https://cnoy.org/location/sooke
Now onwards with the original post ...
A resident wrote recently (Jan. 22) with concerns about unhoused individuals in the town centre and tenters in Ed Macgregor Park, the latter sparked by the potentially extremely dangerous fire at one campsite there last weekend (identified early on by a neighbour and fortunately extinguished by Sooke Fire in short order). She was also concerned by the growing collection of material (read: stuff and/or junk) piled under cover on the bandshell by one group of campers.
As Council's appointee to the Sooke Homelessness Coalition, I wrote back ...
Mayor Tait has forwarded your email for reply in my role as co-chair of the Sooke Homelessness Coalition along with the Sooke Shelter Society's Melanie Cunningham.
You're far from alone in feeling unsafe in the park and being disturbed by the scenes there. Some demand strong enforcement, others call for compassionate alternatives and solutions to a growing human crisis that is common across Canada. Unquestionably, all of us want to feel safe and secure to enjoy our seaside park and the town centre.
As I'm sure you're aware, homelessness and the risk thereof, related mental health and addictions issues, poverty and the lack of affordable housing are among the top issues of our times. Sooke is not immune.
The BC Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that tenters may set up in public parks from 7 PM to 9 AM when shelter space is unavailable. A group of unhoused (individuals and some family groups) have opted to overnight in Ed Macgregor since 2022 given its proximity to the services and supports across the road at the Sooke Shelter. Tenters in years previous would camp out-of-sight on private land behind the Hope Centre and in various spots around Sooke.
The average number of tents at Ed Mac is about four per night, according to Sooke Bylaw Services. Our two Bylaw Officers enforce the guidelines. Sooke RCMP are also involved at times. District Parks staff frequently are on site to remove garbage, sodden blankets and other trash.
A new wrinkle is the volume of random stuff several groups have brought to certain tent sites, in particular the sheltered area under the bandshell.
In response, the District has notified tenters that they have until Feb. 1 to clear out these items. A week next Thursday, staff will collaborate with Victoria Contracting and outreach workers from the Shelter to help individuals remove, store and/or dispose of this material. Staff will continue to keep a close eye on the park as ever and there will be subsequent clearances as and if new possessions accumulate. Materials with any personal or financial value will be held for 30 days so they can be reclaimed.
We're fortunate that the issue is on a relatively small scale in Sooke compared to larger centres. The Province has established and continues to fund the Sooke Shelter at the Hope Centre (now known as Hummingbird Place).
Langford, as you may be aware, lacks any such shelter and homelessness has evolved into a significant issue with no easy solutions despite the action you reference. I know that this is a matter MLA Parmar is committed to addressing, just as he is here in Sooke where he cheers on and supports our proactive grassroots work on what is a provincially mandated matter.
The Sooke Homelessness Coalition was founded in 2018 and much dedicated work on this "wicked" (i.e., incredibly complex and multi-faceted) issue continues. Participants include the Shelter, the T'Sou-ke Nation, Sooke Bylaw, Sooke RCMP, Sooke Fire, BC Housing, Island Health, the CRD's Reaching Home program, the Alliance to End Homelessness in Greater Victoria and others. We are unfunded, rely on volunteer participation and are entirely grateful for the remarkable work of Sooke Shelter staff 24/7.
A new SHC advisory working group is underway involving many of these groups along with Councillors Beddows and St-Pierre. I'll cc them and others here to share your concerns and my response.
sincerely,
Jeff
And in answering further questions, I wrote:
District staff have enforcement authority as per Sooke bylaws. Council has the authority to enact and amend bylaws. There are exceptions when the District must comply with other orders of government or judicial authorities. In this case, the BC Supreme Court has ruled that when there is insufficient shelter space, then the unhoused are permitted to stay overnight in parks.
Staff and RCMP work with the unhoused, and cleaning up Ed Mac and other Sooke parks is part of their operational duties year-round. I cannot provide you with specific costs for either their time or the clean-up that took place yesterday. I'm told the District continues to drill down and better understand costs of this kind, and will explore opportunities to recover the costs, if possible, as part of our advocacy with the Province.
Apart from staff time, the District has a service agreement with the Sooke Shelter ($7k in 2023) funded through the Province's COVID Recovery Fund. The lion's share of its funding is through BC Housing, grants and its own fundraising efforts (Coldest Night of the Year, for instance).
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While I'm here I'll share more as is tradition on this blog.
In November 2021, shortly before the first of three community consultations that produced the SHC's first three-year Strategic Plan, I assembled this long and winding post on this subject.
In brief, it states that the Coalition was launched in 2017 by Mayor Tait and the District in association with Sooke Shelter's Sherry Thompson and Sooke Region Communities Health Network's Mary Dunn and Christine Bossi. The Coalition's goal is to gather "local housing, health and social service providers, businesses, people with lived or living experiences of homelessness, and concerned citizens" in a collaborative mission "to develop and drive solutions to end homelessness."
The SHC is a satellite of what is now known as the Alliance to End Homelessness in the Capital Region.
The SHC's terms of reference dictate that it advocate for and support those who do the hard front-line work at the Shelter while also more generally addressing homelessness and the risk-of-it in the Sooke region. It has no operational budget nor staff support. Meetings are attended by reps from the SSS, SRCHN, the T'Sou-ke Nation, the CRD's Reaching Home program, and DOS Bylaw, among others. Participation has declined now that the Shelter is established and operational vs. the critical period when strong advocacy and liaison was required prior to BC Housing's purchase of the Hope Centre as Sooke's first shelter in February 2021.
This said, I'm happy to report that the newly formed SHC Community Action Team is bursting with new energy. The membership list is attached below. We've met twice to date. This month's meeting led by facilitator Don Brown featured presentations by MLA Ravi Parmar, M'akola Housing Society's Kevin Albers and Alita Torcher (as managers of the BC Housing buildings on Charters and and Drennan), Bylaw Officer Medea Mills, RCMP Detachment Commander Greg Willcocks and the Food Bank's Kim Kaldal. [The Sooke News Mirror previewed the CAT last year.]
The SHC Strategic Plan, completed in mid-2022, features recommendations tackled to varying incomplete degrees by the SHC and, much more efficiently and fully in its case, by the SSS team led by Sherry Thompson and Kristie Miller.
Sooke Homelessness Coalition
* Advocacy for stable, long-term funding (notably with District of Sooke for the first SSS Service Agreement)
* Ongoing stakeholder engagement via regular meetings (six times per year)
* Establishment of a Sooke Community Advisory Team
* Advocacy for an addiction treatment centre in the Sooke region (support in principle from T'Sou-ke, DOS and Island Health and much groundwork by SHC working group member Kelly Roth, ex-ED of the Coalition to End Homelessness)
* RV/Homeowner Matchmaking pilot project and other alt.housing solutions (recommendations presented to MLA's Horgan and Parmar in 2022/23.)
Sooke Shelter Society
* Ongoing day-to-day operations and management for 33-unit residence
* Out-reach workers dealing with 225 individuals in Sooke (unhoused and those at-risk of homelessness)
* Management of a $1.4 million annual budget
* Operationalize the Sooke Hub at the Hope Centre, i.e. ground-floor complex featuring office space for support workers, six emergency shelter beds, commercial kitchen, showers, washer/dryer.
* Fundraising Campaigns (including Coldest Night of the Year)
* Grant writing and research
The Strategic Plan captures the seven chief recommendations in Gemma Martin's Beyond the Paradise: Homelessness in the Sooke Region (2021), prepared for the Sooke Region Communities Health Network.
1. Housing First With Wrap-Around Support - roof over head for the chronically homeless + on-site mental health and addiction services (as championed by many, including the City of Victoria's Breaking The Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions and Homelessness report, related housing-first case studies in the region and the Medicine Hat, Alta. Plan to End Homelessness.)
2. Transitional Housing - 33 units at Hummingbird Place (formerly the Hope Centre) managed by the Sooke Shelter Society following BC Housing's purchase of the Hope Centre in February, 2021. There was a surge in attention to and care for the homeless in Sooke during COVID (i.e., the temporary shelters at SEAPARC, Ed Mcgregor Park and the former Mulligans/Speed Source building at John Phillips Memorial Park.)
3. Hub Service Model - Hummingbird Place provides one-stop access for vulnerable populations to case workers, support services and information about available services, including healthcare, housing support, washing facilities, food, employment, training opportunities. The ground floor of the Hope Centre (former St. Vincent de Paul store) is slated to become this hub with full-time staff, six shelter beds for temporary visitors, programming space and a commercial kitchen/dining space where upstairs residents will have communal meals.
4. Meaningful Alliances with First Nations in the Sooke Region
5. Education & Communication - Outreach to the community to explain the problem and how its being addressed, "using in part the voices of people with lived experience." (Misunderstanding abounds, of course. A Winnipeg Free Press article, for instance, quotes Carolann Barr, executive director at Toronto-based non-profit Raising the Roof, as saying that "people who are homeless are more often victims than criminals. The general public might think that people who face homelessness are actually perpetrators of crime, but most research and most statistics available indicate that people who are homeless are at greater risk of violence and attack, obviously because they don’t have a safe place to go home to.'")
6. Access to Affordable Housing - Martin quotes one of her lived-experience survey subjects as saying "it's getting to the point (in Sooke) that it's feeling like a lottery to get a viewing even at an apartment, let alone being selected." Rent Smart service ... BC Non-Profit Housing Association
7. Investment in Localized Specialized Services
Wanted: Truly Affordable Non-Profit Housing
This requires a blog post of its own. In it, I would cite ...
- Housing section of Sooke's pending Official Community Plan, pp. 135-142 + Actions # 84-101 in the implementation plan (pp. 170-71)
- Sooke Housing Needs Report (2019) - a new report is required by the province every five years and is due this year
- Sooke Affordable Housing Committee (2018/2020) recommendations, minutes and agendas
i.e., https://sooke.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Nov-28-2019-Affordable-Housing-Comm-mins.pdf
- Sooke Affordable Housing & Social Housing Policy, 2007
- Depending on the results of the Alternate Approval Process that closed on Feb. 5, the CRD may be going ahead in increments with an $85m loan allowing it to ante up with federal and provincial funds to fast-track the Regional Housing First program. This equates to a maximum of $26 per average assessed CRD taxpayer on our tax bills this year and ongoing.
From the CRD FAQ: "If the borrowing bylaw is adopted the CRD would be able to leverage potentially hundreds of millions of additional funds from provincial and federal government partners who are also highly motivated to advance housing affordability. An example of this is the Regional Housing First Program where the CRD contributed $40 million that was matched by the BC government through BC Housing and the federal government through CMHC. This resulted in $120 million available to finance affordable housing properties and ultimately more than 1500 rental units, ranging from shelter rate units at $375/month to near-market rentals geared to households with moderate incomes.
The increased capacity for borrowing that the CRD is seeking, when combined with funding from other orders of government, could deliver as many as 2,000 new units of affordable housing in the coming years, doubling the CRHC’s portfolio, and providing a regional approach to increased affordable housing options."
Sooke represents 3% of the CRD total population. Ipso facto, this means we're due at least 60 of the promised new units under the Regional Housing First program should this borrowing go ahead. The M'akola/BC Housing projects on Charters and Drennan are under the Housing First banner.
Challenging Situations
If you have concerns about the mental health of an unhoused person and potential outcomes of their actions, you're advised to contact Sooke RCMP. Officers have the power to apprehend under the BC Mental Health Act. If a medical incident, they will call an ambulance.
In the event of an immediate emergency, call 911.
Island Health’s Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Team covers the South Island, including Sooke. Call the Vancouver Island Crisis Hot Line at 1-888-494-3888.
Section 28 of the Mental Health Act authorizes police to apprehend an individual if satisfied that he/she/they is behaving in a way that will endanger their own safety or the safety of others. This is in situations where individuals apparently have a disorder of the mind that requires treatment and which seriously impairs their ability to react appropriately to their environment or to associate with others.
If an individual is apprehended under the MHA, the police officer must take them to a physician for examination. If the physician completes a medical certificate for the involuntary admission, they may be admitted to a designated facility. If the physician does not complete a medical certificate for the involuntary admission, the individual must be released.
- List of BC mental health facilities and psychiatric hospitals (2022). VGH, Royal Jubilee and Cowichan Valley Hospital are those in our vicinity.
- Province of BC Safer Communities Action Plan (announced Nov. 23, 2022) includes the following measures and initiatives:
~ Ending Encampments and Housing Insecurity
~ B.C. premier's expansion of involuntary medical treatment infringes on human rights: advocates (CBC, Nov. 27, 2022)
- The Canadian Mental Health Association has established Peer-Assisted Care Teams (PACT) on the lower mainland and in Victoria (AVI Health and Community Services). The latter served Sooke at one point through its now-closed Langford office.
- Province of BC Mobile Integrated Crisis Response: “The provincial government committed $3 million to launch additional Mobile Integrated Crisis Response (MICR) teams in nine communities throughout B.C. Vernon’s was announced on Dec. 1, 2023, Penticton’s on Jan. 22, 2024, and there are teams upcoming on the Westshore and in Prince Rupert, and Squamish. Lower Mainland MICR teams operating in Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, Abbotsford and Chilliwack were recently launched. Teams have previously been established in Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Fort St. John, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver, North Shore, Nanaimo and Victoria.” (Global News, January 2024)
- Examples: Victoria Car 87 program + Nanaimo Car 54 program
- Province of BC Toolkit: Interfaces Between Mental Health and Substance Use Services and Police (2017)
- BC Ombudsperson’s 2019 report Committed to Change: Protecting the Rights of Involuntary Patients Under the Mental Health Act + infographic + 2022 update. <clip> “In British Columbia, around 15,000 mentally ill people were involuntarily detained in one of B.C.’s over 70 psychiatric facilities in 2016/17 – a number that has grown by approximately 70 percent in the last decade.”
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Addendum
I prepared this library of links for the Strategic Plan. Since they're not live in the document itself, I'll share it again here with connected links ... Some are unfortunately broken, including all from the late, lamented Sooke Pocket News and a remarkable read from former Victoria councillor Stephen Andrew documenting a Pandora St. walkabout with city bylaw officers.
Sooke and Greater Victoria
- Sooke Region Communities Health Network Amidst the Paradise (2021)
- Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Community Plan to End Homelessness (2019-2024)
- Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Reports and Resources
- SRCHN's Sooke Region Food Security Report (2021)
- Sooke Multi-Belief Initiative Compassionate Action Plan (2020 update)
- Greater Victoria Point In Time Homeless Count and Housing Needs Survey (2020) + 2018 + 2016
- The Sooke Navigator Project: Using Community Resources and Research to Improve Local Service for Mental Health and Addictions (Dr. Ellen Anderson, 2009)
Housing in the Sooke Region
- District of Sooke Housing Needs Report (2019)
- CRD/Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Housing Needs Report (2020)
- Hope Centre Transitional and Emergency Shelter with wrap-around support services
- T’Sou-ke Indigenous Housing Solutions Lab (2021/22)
- Capital Region Housing Corporation
- BC Housing - New Homes Under Construction in Sooke
- BC Housing - Subsidized housing (how to apply)
- M'akola Housing Society (management of new BC Housing projects)
- Coming Home: The Story of the Hope Centre Mural (Natassia Davies, Dahlila Charlie, Nicole Neidhardt, Jesse Campbell)
Regional, Provincial and National
- Government of Canada Reaching Home: Canada's Homelessness Strategy + backgrounder
- Capital Regional District Reaching Home program + FAQ
- Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Stronger Together Building Community Roundtable (2018)
- City of Victoria's Breaking The Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions and Homelessness report (2007)
- Medicine Hat, Alta. Plan to End Homelessness (2009) + year nine progress report
- Government of Canada Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (2016)
- Province of BC: TogetherBC, British Columbia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (2019)
- BC Ministry of Mental Health & Addictions - A Pathway to Hope: Roadmap to 2030 (2019) + Progress Report(2021)
- BC Ministry of Social Development & Policy Reduction + reports page
Sooke Region Agencies and Front-line Service Providers
- Sooke Shelter Society
- Sooke Food Bank Society
- Sooke Community Paramedic
- District of Sooke Bylaw Services
- Sooke RCMP
- West Coast Family Medical Clinic
- Sooke Family Resource Society
- Sooke Place Housing Society
- Sooke Transition House Society
- Sooke School District #62 - Healthy Schools, Healthy People program
- Holy Trinity Anglican Church Vital Vitals program
- Sooke Baptist Church Big House Breakfast program
- AVI Health & Community Services + Westshore clinic
Related Organizations & Resources
- BC Housing Homelessness Services and Programs
- BC Housing Homelessness Prevention Program
- BC Toward the Heart harm reduction program
- Backpack Project
- Doctors of the World Mobile Health Clinic
- University of Victoria – Canadian Managed Alcohol Program Study
- Housing Overdose Prevention Sites (HOPS)
- SOLID Outreach Victoria (Peer-based health education and support services)
Selected Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Reports
- Archive of Reports and Resources
- Homelessness in Greater Victoria: 2014/15 Report on Housing & Supports (2015)
- Creating Homes: A Community Guide to Affordable and Supportive Housing Development (2019)
- Community Planning Day Summary (2019)
- Health and Housing Think Tank Summary Report: A Vision for Greater Victoria (April, 2021)
- Functional Zero Working Group Report (Jan. 2022)
- 940 Caledonia: A Framework for Sanctioned, Self-Managed & Supported Encampments for People Experiencing Homelessness (2022)
- Face To Face with Stigma (Participant Package)
Miscellaneous Resources and Reports
- BC Housing: Community Acceptance of Non-Market Housing Toolkit (2019)
* Guide One: Building Partnerships with Local Governments
* Guide Two: Design Considerations to Gain Community Acceptance
* Guide Three: Gaining and Maintaining Community Acceptance
* Guide Four: Sample Materials for Non-Market Housing Suppliers
* Guide Five: Additional Resources
- BC Housing: Community Benefits of Supportive Housing (Infographic)
- Province of BC Income Assistance Rate Table (updated Oct. 2021) + Support & Shelter page
- Sooke School District #62 Healthy Schools, Healthy People infographic on youth issues (2019)
- The Roadmap for the Prevention of Youth Homelessness (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2019)
- Core Service Gaps in Indigenous Wellness (Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness)
- Gender Equality Project (Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness)
- BC Housing: Emergency Shelter Program Framework (2018)
- BC Housing: Tiny Homes – An Alternative to Conventional Housing (2021)
- The Pan-Canadian Women’s Housing and Homelessness Survey (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2021)
- An Affordable Housing Plan for British Columbia (BC Rental Housing Coalition, 2015)
- Ending Working Poverty in Canada: How To Get It Done (Vibrant Communities/Tamarack Institute, 2021)
- Situation Tables: A Model for Community Safety and Well-Being in British Columbia (BC Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General)
- Yes, In My Backyard: Welcoming Inclusion, Upholding Human Rights (Pivot Legal Society, 2020)
- COVID 19: The Beginning of the End of Homelessness (City of Victoria, 2021)
Media Coverage 2018/2022
- "Homeless In Sooke for Safety" - CBC (March 20, 2018)
- “Members of Sooke Affordable Housing Committee Appointed” – Sooke Pocket News (July 10, 2018)
- “Homelessness in Sooke – It Exists” – Sooke Pocket News (July 27, 2018)
- “More Information on the Sooke Extreme Weather Shelter” – Sooke Pocket News (Feb. 9, 2019)
- "Sooke Delivers on Helping the Homeless" - News Mirror (Jul. 13, 2020)
- "Sooke Mayor Pleads for Help with Homeless" - Times Colonist (Oct. 8, 2020)
- "Affordable Housing Projects Planned for Sooke Badly Needed" - Times Colonist (Feb. 17, 2021)
- “New Affordable Rentals, Supportive Homes Coming to Sooke” – CHEK News (Feb. 17, 2021)
- "Sooke Homelessness Report Highlights Lack of Services" - News Mirror (March 11, 2021)
- "How A Sooke Family Fell Through the Cracks into Hidden Homelessness" - Capital Daily (June 15, 2021)
- "Sooke Receives Over $400k to Improve Homelessness Services" - Victoria Buzz (Aug. 23, 2021)
- “My Morning with Victoria Bylaw and the Street Community” – Stephen Andrew (Oct. 9, 2021)
- “Shelter Residents Help Keep Sooke Clean” – Sooke News Mirror (Feb. 10, 2022)
- “Coldest Night of the Year Back to Raise $20k for Sooke Shelter Society” – Sooke News Mirror (Feb. 10, 2022)
Foundational Documents on Human Rights and the Right to Housing
- Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948)
- National Housing Strategy Act (2019) + Progress on the NHS (Government of Canada)
- A Primer on Housing Rights in Canada (Parliament of Canada)
- The Victoria Declaration: A Statement on Governance in Housing & Support Services (Renee Beausoleil, Matthew Wildcat and the UVic Indigenous Law Research Unit, 2020)
- United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (2015) + infographic
- Right to Housing Legislation in Canada + Assessing Canada’s National Housing Strategy (The National Right to Housing Network)
In an RV outside Walmart, a senior dreams of housing - Canadian Press, Jan. 27, 2024
"He's been on BC Housing's waiting list for subsidized housing for two years now. Every time he contacts the agency, staff ask him to check back in another six months, he said. FLight is among a large population of elderly people living in poverty or on its brink in British Columbia, where perennially high housing costs exacerbate countrywide cost-of-living woes. Government statistics show people 65 or older in B.C. are twice as likely as younger adults to be classified as having low incomes in 2021. But it wasn't always like this. Twenty years earlier, it was the other way around. Low-income rates among B.C. seniors have almost doubled since 2001, and are almost seven times higher than in 1996, according to government statistics."
~ "What Does It Look Like To Tackle Homelessness: Lessons from Medicine Hat" (Times Colonist, March 6, 2024)
"Even keeping track of the numbers is challenging; federal government statistics dating from 2017 indicate 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness in any given year and acknowledge that the hidden homeless, such as couch surfers or those going from shelter to shelter, were not included in those estimates. In 2021, Statistics Canada asked Canadian households whether they had ever experienced homelessness, and one in 10 respondents said they had. Advocates warn of a “humanitarian crisis,” and in some parts of the country, critics say government responses have been inadequate."
The original plan (2020) for the soon-to-open ground-floor hub space run by the Sooke Shelter Society had included a half-dozen 7 PM to 7AM emergency beds in a lay-out that would also feature a common area, commercial kitchen, washer/dryer/shower facilities and, critically, clinic space for support staff, i.e., mental health/addictions professionals and Shelter employees associated with the Reaching Home program who work with the unhoused, the working poor and those at-risk of homelessness.
It's now recognized that six beds are insufficient for current and especially potential future needs. In response, Shelter staff led by Sherry Thompson and Kristie Miller have re-envisioned use of the common space and pencilled in the extra shelter beds. These would be set-up as needed, operate year-round, and also double as an Emergency Weather Shelter during cold snaps in the winter. To run this expanded operation, the Shelter requires three additional employees as part of its contract with BC Housing.
Securing these new beds would be a game-changer in terms of delivering safe shelter for tenters who currently overnight in public parks and other locations around Sooke. The problem at Ed Macgregor Park detailed below has seemingly been solved for now, however individuals who camped there have relocated elsewhere, notably the private land behind Hummingbird Place. Add up the Ed Mac tenters (four per night on average in the early winter, rising to a high of 9 last summer) and those elsewhere, and the need is clear and growing. Some individuals want to live rough outdoors, but many want a safer environment.
The Shelter is home to an evolving group of support staff, residents, drop-ins and peers with lived experience. Collectively they're creating the kind of interconnected community that's central in the social determinants of health. This latest initiative is entirely worthy of new funding, we believe. [See the advocacy letter in full on pp. 193/94 of the April 8 council agenda.]
Feb. 1, 2024: Attached at the end of this post is the Sooke Homelessness Coalition's 2022-25 Strategic Plan along with a recent power point prepared for the first meeting of the SHC's Community Advisory Team (CAT). Facilitated by the SHC's Don Brown, the CAT includes reps from the Sooke Shelter, DOS Bylaw Services, Sooke RCMP, Sooke Food Bank, Sooke Chamber of Commerce, Sooke Council, local business and resident appointees (including the Rev. Al Tysick).
In the note below that I wrote to a resident and which inspired this post, I didn't mention that Budget 2024 will include a funding request for a third Sooke bylaw officer to ensure teams of two are available to do daily checks at tent sites ... necessary given the unpredictable behaviours of individuals who may be dealing with addiction or mental health issues ... in addition to responding to multiple other bylaw needs in our growing community.
The District has also developed a new homeless action plan that kicked off last week ahead of the schedule I mention in my reply below. Ed Mac's stage has now been cleared of the incredible pile of stuff (read: junk to some, treasure to others) that had accumulated there. Such situations will be monitored closely in future.
On Jan. 31, Councillors Beddows, Pearson, St-Pierre and I met in the park with approx. 25 neighbours profoundly concerned about tenting impacts on both the park and the surrounding area. The meeting was organized by the District's CAO Raechel Gray and Communications Coordinator Christina Moog. Two of the group's members are invited to the next CAT meeting to share more.
The text that Deputy Mayor St-Pierre read aloud at the Jan. 29 Coffee With Council included the following timely remarks about "homelessness and park safety" in Sooke:
"Speaking of challenges with housing and our unhoused population, on Saturday, January 20th there was a fire in Ed Macgregor Park where some members of our community are sheltering overnight.
Upon arrival, crews discovered an unoccupied tent engulfed in flames, which was quickly brought under control. The affected area was promptly sectioned off for further cleanup efforts.
On Monday, January 22, the District initiated a comprehensive park cleanup, addressing not only the aftermath of the fire but also the surrounding area.
District staff collaborated with the owner of belongings stored near the park’s amphitheatre, coordinating the securing of personal items while facilitating the disposal of remaining materials.
The District is committed to ensuring the safety of all park users, including visitors, staff, and individuals experiencing homelessness.
The public is reminded that, following a Supreme Court ruling, where there is limited accessible shelter space in the community, overnight sheltering in parks is permitted from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. However, it is crucial to emphasize that this provision is not intended to serve as a long-term storage solution for personal belongings.
The District has reestablished an action plan to provide increased maintenance to help ensure Ed Macgregor Park is a safe and welcoming space for everyone to enjoy. Those visiting the park can expect an increased presence of bylaw services and outreach workers.
Staff will continue to evaluate the park use and related maintenance while also understanding more about shelter capacity and available shelter space.
We are tracking these costs and will seek to recover associated expenses, if at all possible.
Over the weekend, MLA Ravi Parmar highlighted his commitment for helping us realize an integrated health centre in Sooke. The identified site for this facility is on Wadams Way by the library."
PS This year's Coldest Night of the Year march to raise funds for the Sooke Shelter Society is on Saturday, Feb. 24. Sign up or donate as the SSS strives to exceed the record $30k raised last year. https://cnoy.org/location/sooke
Now onwards with the original post ...
A resident wrote recently (Jan. 22) with concerns about unhoused individuals in the town centre and tenters in Ed Macgregor Park, the latter sparked by the potentially extremely dangerous fire at one campsite there last weekend (identified early on by a neighbour and fortunately extinguished by Sooke Fire in short order). She was also concerned by the growing collection of material (read: stuff and/or junk) piled under cover on the bandshell by one group of campers.
As Council's appointee to the Sooke Homelessness Coalition, I wrote back ...
Mayor Tait has forwarded your email for reply in my role as co-chair of the Sooke Homelessness Coalition along with the Sooke Shelter Society's Melanie Cunningham.
You're far from alone in feeling unsafe in the park and being disturbed by the scenes there. Some demand strong enforcement, others call for compassionate alternatives and solutions to a growing human crisis that is common across Canada. Unquestionably, all of us want to feel safe and secure to enjoy our seaside park and the town centre.
As I'm sure you're aware, homelessness and the risk thereof, related mental health and addictions issues, poverty and the lack of affordable housing are among the top issues of our times. Sooke is not immune.
The BC Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that tenters may set up in public parks from 7 PM to 9 AM when shelter space is unavailable. A group of unhoused (individuals and some family groups) have opted to overnight in Ed Macgregor since 2022 given its proximity to the services and supports across the road at the Sooke Shelter. Tenters in years previous would camp out-of-sight on private land behind the Hope Centre and in various spots around Sooke.
The average number of tents at Ed Mac is about four per night, according to Sooke Bylaw Services. Our two Bylaw Officers enforce the guidelines. Sooke RCMP are also involved at times. District Parks staff frequently are on site to remove garbage, sodden blankets and other trash.
A new wrinkle is the volume of random stuff several groups have brought to certain tent sites, in particular the sheltered area under the bandshell.
In response, the District has notified tenters that they have until Feb. 1 to clear out these items. A week next Thursday, staff will collaborate with Victoria Contracting and outreach workers from the Shelter to help individuals remove, store and/or dispose of this material. Staff will continue to keep a close eye on the park as ever and there will be subsequent clearances as and if new possessions accumulate. Materials with any personal or financial value will be held for 30 days so they can be reclaimed.
We're fortunate that the issue is on a relatively small scale in Sooke compared to larger centres. The Province has established and continues to fund the Sooke Shelter at the Hope Centre (now known as Hummingbird Place).
Langford, as you may be aware, lacks any such shelter and homelessness has evolved into a significant issue with no easy solutions despite the action you reference. I know that this is a matter MLA Parmar is committed to addressing, just as he is here in Sooke where he cheers on and supports our proactive grassroots work on what is a provincially mandated matter.
The Sooke Homelessness Coalition was founded in 2018 and much dedicated work on this "wicked" (i.e., incredibly complex and multi-faceted) issue continues. Participants include the Shelter, the T'Sou-ke Nation, Sooke Bylaw, Sooke RCMP, Sooke Fire, BC Housing, Island Health, the CRD's Reaching Home program, the Alliance to End Homelessness in Greater Victoria and others. We are unfunded, rely on volunteer participation and are entirely grateful for the remarkable work of Sooke Shelter staff 24/7.
A new SHC advisory working group is underway involving many of these groups along with Councillors Beddows and St-Pierre. I'll cc them and others here to share your concerns and my response.
sincerely,
Jeff
And in answering further questions, I wrote:
District staff have enforcement authority as per Sooke bylaws. Council has the authority to enact and amend bylaws. There are exceptions when the District must comply with other orders of government or judicial authorities. In this case, the BC Supreme Court has ruled that when there is insufficient shelter space, then the unhoused are permitted to stay overnight in parks.
Staff and RCMP work with the unhoused, and cleaning up Ed Mac and other Sooke parks is part of their operational duties year-round. I cannot provide you with specific costs for either their time or the clean-up that took place yesterday. I'm told the District continues to drill down and better understand costs of this kind, and will explore opportunities to recover the costs, if possible, as part of our advocacy with the Province.
Apart from staff time, the District has a service agreement with the Sooke Shelter ($7k in 2023) funded through the Province's COVID Recovery Fund. The lion's share of its funding is through BC Housing, grants and its own fundraising efforts (Coldest Night of the Year, for instance).
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While I'm here I'll share more as is tradition on this blog.
In November 2021, shortly before the first of three community consultations that produced the SHC's first three-year Strategic Plan, I assembled this long and winding post on this subject.
In brief, it states that the Coalition was launched in 2017 by Mayor Tait and the District in association with Sooke Shelter's Sherry Thompson and Sooke Region Communities Health Network's Mary Dunn and Christine Bossi. The Coalition's goal is to gather "local housing, health and social service providers, businesses, people with lived or living experiences of homelessness, and concerned citizens" in a collaborative mission "to develop and drive solutions to end homelessness."
The SHC is a satellite of what is now known as the Alliance to End Homelessness in the Capital Region.
The SHC's terms of reference dictate that it advocate for and support those who do the hard front-line work at the Shelter while also more generally addressing homelessness and the risk-of-it in the Sooke region. It has no operational budget nor staff support. Meetings are attended by reps from the SSS, SRCHN, the T'Sou-ke Nation, the CRD's Reaching Home program, and DOS Bylaw, among others. Participation has declined now that the Shelter is established and operational vs. the critical period when strong advocacy and liaison was required prior to BC Housing's purchase of the Hope Centre as Sooke's first shelter in February 2021.
This said, I'm happy to report that the newly formed SHC Community Action Team is bursting with new energy. The membership list is attached below. We've met twice to date. This month's meeting led by facilitator Don Brown featured presentations by MLA Ravi Parmar, M'akola Housing Society's Kevin Albers and Alita Torcher (as managers of the BC Housing buildings on Charters and and Drennan), Bylaw Officer Medea Mills, RCMP Detachment Commander Greg Willcocks and the Food Bank's Kim Kaldal. [The Sooke News Mirror previewed the CAT last year.]
The SHC Strategic Plan, completed in mid-2022, features recommendations tackled to varying incomplete degrees by the SHC and, much more efficiently and fully in its case, by the SSS team led by Sherry Thompson and Kristie Miller.
Sooke Homelessness Coalition
* Advocacy for stable, long-term funding (notably with District of Sooke for the first SSS Service Agreement)
* Ongoing stakeholder engagement via regular meetings (six times per year)
* Establishment of a Sooke Community Advisory Team
* Advocacy for an addiction treatment centre in the Sooke region (support in principle from T'Sou-ke, DOS and Island Health and much groundwork by SHC working group member Kelly Roth, ex-ED of the Coalition to End Homelessness)
* RV/Homeowner Matchmaking pilot project and other alt.housing solutions (recommendations presented to MLA's Horgan and Parmar in 2022/23.)
Sooke Shelter Society
* Ongoing day-to-day operations and management for 33-unit residence
* Out-reach workers dealing with 225 individuals in Sooke (unhoused and those at-risk of homelessness)
* Management of a $1.4 million annual budget
* Operationalize the Sooke Hub at the Hope Centre, i.e. ground-floor complex featuring office space for support workers, six emergency shelter beds, commercial kitchen, showers, washer/dryer.
* Fundraising Campaigns (including Coldest Night of the Year)
* Grant writing and research
The Strategic Plan captures the seven chief recommendations in Gemma Martin's Beyond the Paradise: Homelessness in the Sooke Region (2021), prepared for the Sooke Region Communities Health Network.
1. Housing First With Wrap-Around Support - roof over head for the chronically homeless + on-site mental health and addiction services (as championed by many, including the City of Victoria's Breaking The Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions and Homelessness report, related housing-first case studies in the region and the Medicine Hat, Alta. Plan to End Homelessness.)
2. Transitional Housing - 33 units at Hummingbird Place (formerly the Hope Centre) managed by the Sooke Shelter Society following BC Housing's purchase of the Hope Centre in February, 2021. There was a surge in attention to and care for the homeless in Sooke during COVID (i.e., the temporary shelters at SEAPARC, Ed Mcgregor Park and the former Mulligans/Speed Source building at John Phillips Memorial Park.)
3. Hub Service Model - Hummingbird Place provides one-stop access for vulnerable populations to case workers, support services and information about available services, including healthcare, housing support, washing facilities, food, employment, training opportunities. The ground floor of the Hope Centre (former St. Vincent de Paul store) is slated to become this hub with full-time staff, six shelter beds for temporary visitors, programming space and a commercial kitchen/dining space where upstairs residents will have communal meals.
4. Meaningful Alliances with First Nations in the Sooke Region
5. Education & Communication - Outreach to the community to explain the problem and how its being addressed, "using in part the voices of people with lived experience." (Misunderstanding abounds, of course. A Winnipeg Free Press article, for instance, quotes Carolann Barr, executive director at Toronto-based non-profit Raising the Roof, as saying that "people who are homeless are more often victims than criminals. The general public might think that people who face homelessness are actually perpetrators of crime, but most research and most statistics available indicate that people who are homeless are at greater risk of violence and attack, obviously because they don’t have a safe place to go home to.'")
6. Access to Affordable Housing - Martin quotes one of her lived-experience survey subjects as saying "it's getting to the point (in Sooke) that it's feeling like a lottery to get a viewing even at an apartment, let alone being selected." Rent Smart service ... BC Non-Profit Housing Association
7. Investment in Localized Specialized Services
Wanted: Truly Affordable Non-Profit Housing
This requires a blog post of its own. In it, I would cite ...
- Housing section of Sooke's pending Official Community Plan, pp. 135-142 + Actions # 84-101 in the implementation plan (pp. 170-71)
- Sooke Housing Needs Report (2019) - a new report is required by the province every five years and is due this year
- Sooke Affordable Housing Committee (2018/2020) recommendations, minutes and agendas
i.e., https://sooke.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Nov-28-2019-Affordable-Housing-Comm-mins.pdf
- Sooke Affordable Housing & Social Housing Policy, 2007
- Depending on the results of the Alternate Approval Process that closed on Feb. 5, the CRD may be going ahead in increments with an $85m loan allowing it to ante up with federal and provincial funds to fast-track the Regional Housing First program. This equates to a maximum of $26 per average assessed CRD taxpayer on our tax bills this year and ongoing.
From the CRD FAQ: "If the borrowing bylaw is adopted the CRD would be able to leverage potentially hundreds of millions of additional funds from provincial and federal government partners who are also highly motivated to advance housing affordability. An example of this is the Regional Housing First Program where the CRD contributed $40 million that was matched by the BC government through BC Housing and the federal government through CMHC. This resulted in $120 million available to finance affordable housing properties and ultimately more than 1500 rental units, ranging from shelter rate units at $375/month to near-market rentals geared to households with moderate incomes.
The increased capacity for borrowing that the CRD is seeking, when combined with funding from other orders of government, could deliver as many as 2,000 new units of affordable housing in the coming years, doubling the CRHC’s portfolio, and providing a regional approach to increased affordable housing options."
Sooke represents 3% of the CRD total population. Ipso facto, this means we're due at least 60 of the promised new units under the Regional Housing First program should this borrowing go ahead. The M'akola/BC Housing projects on Charters and Drennan are under the Housing First banner.
Challenging Situations
If you have concerns about the mental health of an unhoused person and potential outcomes of their actions, you're advised to contact Sooke RCMP. Officers have the power to apprehend under the BC Mental Health Act. If a medical incident, they will call an ambulance.
In the event of an immediate emergency, call 911.
Island Health’s Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Team covers the South Island, including Sooke. Call the Vancouver Island Crisis Hot Line at 1-888-494-3888.
Section 28 of the Mental Health Act authorizes police to apprehend an individual if satisfied that he/she/they is behaving in a way that will endanger their own safety or the safety of others. This is in situations where individuals apparently have a disorder of the mind that requires treatment and which seriously impairs their ability to react appropriately to their environment or to associate with others.
If an individual is apprehended under the MHA, the police officer must take them to a physician for examination. If the physician completes a medical certificate for the involuntary admission, they may be admitted to a designated facility. If the physician does not complete a medical certificate for the involuntary admission, the individual must be released.
- List of BC mental health facilities and psychiatric hospitals (2022). VGH, Royal Jubilee and Cowichan Valley Hospital are those in our vicinity.
- Province of BC Safer Communities Action Plan (announced Nov. 23, 2022) includes the following measures and initiatives:
- New repeat violent offender coordinated response teams that include police, prosecutors and probation officers;
- Expanding the use of mental-health crisis response teams, to alleviate the burden on local police and improve response to those in crisis;
- A new addictions care initiative at St. Paul’s Hospital that helps individuals more easily transition between various forms of care and response;
- Opening ten Indigenous Justice Centres to provide culturally appropriate support to Indigenous Peoples involved in the justice system;
~ Ending Encampments and Housing Insecurity
~ B.C. premier's expansion of involuntary medical treatment infringes on human rights: advocates (CBC, Nov. 27, 2022)
- The Canadian Mental Health Association has established Peer-Assisted Care Teams (PACT) on the lower mainland and in Victoria (AVI Health and Community Services). The latter served Sooke at one point through its now-closed Langford office.
- Province of BC Mobile Integrated Crisis Response: “The provincial government committed $3 million to launch additional Mobile Integrated Crisis Response (MICR) teams in nine communities throughout B.C. Vernon’s was announced on Dec. 1, 2023, Penticton’s on Jan. 22, 2024, and there are teams upcoming on the Westshore and in Prince Rupert, and Squamish. Lower Mainland MICR teams operating in Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, Abbotsford and Chilliwack were recently launched. Teams have previously been established in Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Fort St. John, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver, North Shore, Nanaimo and Victoria.” (Global News, January 2024)
- Examples: Victoria Car 87 program + Nanaimo Car 54 program
- Province of BC Toolkit: Interfaces Between Mental Health and Substance Use Services and Police (2017)
- BC Ombudsperson’s 2019 report Committed to Change: Protecting the Rights of Involuntary Patients Under the Mental Health Act + infographic + 2022 update. <clip> “In British Columbia, around 15,000 mentally ill people were involuntarily detained in one of B.C.’s over 70 psychiatric facilities in 2016/17 – a number that has grown by approximately 70 percent in the last decade.”
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Addendum
I prepared this library of links for the Strategic Plan. Since they're not live in the document itself, I'll share it again here with connected links ... Some are unfortunately broken, including all from the late, lamented Sooke Pocket News and a remarkable read from former Victoria councillor Stephen Andrew documenting a Pandora St. walkabout with city bylaw officers.
Sooke and Greater Victoria
- Sooke Region Communities Health Network Amidst the Paradise (2021)
- Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Community Plan to End Homelessness (2019-2024)
- Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Reports and Resources
- SRCHN's Sooke Region Food Security Report (2021)
- Sooke Multi-Belief Initiative Compassionate Action Plan (2020 update)
- Greater Victoria Point In Time Homeless Count and Housing Needs Survey (2020) + 2018 + 2016
- The Sooke Navigator Project: Using Community Resources and Research to Improve Local Service for Mental Health and Addictions (Dr. Ellen Anderson, 2009)
Housing in the Sooke Region
- District of Sooke Housing Needs Report (2019)
- CRD/Juan de Fuca Electoral Area Housing Needs Report (2020)
- Hope Centre Transitional and Emergency Shelter with wrap-around support services
- T’Sou-ke Indigenous Housing Solutions Lab (2021/22)
- Capital Region Housing Corporation
- BC Housing - New Homes Under Construction in Sooke
- BC Housing - Subsidized housing (how to apply)
- M'akola Housing Society (management of new BC Housing projects)
- Coming Home: The Story of the Hope Centre Mural (Natassia Davies, Dahlila Charlie, Nicole Neidhardt, Jesse Campbell)
Regional, Provincial and National
- Government of Canada Reaching Home: Canada's Homelessness Strategy + backgrounder
- Capital Regional District Reaching Home program + FAQ
- Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Stronger Together Building Community Roundtable (2018)
- City of Victoria's Breaking The Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions and Homelessness report (2007)
- Medicine Hat, Alta. Plan to End Homelessness (2009) + year nine progress report
- Government of Canada Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (2016)
- Province of BC: TogetherBC, British Columbia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (2019)
- BC Ministry of Mental Health & Addictions - A Pathway to Hope: Roadmap to 2030 (2019) + Progress Report(2021)
- BC Ministry of Social Development & Policy Reduction + reports page
Sooke Region Agencies and Front-line Service Providers
- Sooke Shelter Society
- Sooke Food Bank Society
- Sooke Community Paramedic
- District of Sooke Bylaw Services
- Sooke RCMP
- West Coast Family Medical Clinic
- Sooke Family Resource Society
- Sooke Place Housing Society
- Sooke Transition House Society
- Sooke School District #62 - Healthy Schools, Healthy People program
- Holy Trinity Anglican Church Vital Vitals program
- Sooke Baptist Church Big House Breakfast program
- AVI Health & Community Services + Westshore clinic
Related Organizations & Resources
- BC Housing Homelessness Services and Programs
- BC Housing Homelessness Prevention Program
- BC Toward the Heart harm reduction program
- Backpack Project
- Doctors of the World Mobile Health Clinic
- University of Victoria – Canadian Managed Alcohol Program Study
- Housing Overdose Prevention Sites (HOPS)
- SOLID Outreach Victoria (Peer-based health education and support services)
Selected Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Reports
- Archive of Reports and Resources
- Homelessness in Greater Victoria: 2014/15 Report on Housing & Supports (2015)
- Creating Homes: A Community Guide to Affordable and Supportive Housing Development (2019)
- Community Planning Day Summary (2019)
- Health and Housing Think Tank Summary Report: A Vision for Greater Victoria (April, 2021)
- Functional Zero Working Group Report (Jan. 2022)
- 940 Caledonia: A Framework for Sanctioned, Self-Managed & Supported Encampments for People Experiencing Homelessness (2022)
- Face To Face with Stigma (Participant Package)
Miscellaneous Resources and Reports
- BC Housing: Community Acceptance of Non-Market Housing Toolkit (2019)
* Guide One: Building Partnerships with Local Governments
* Guide Two: Design Considerations to Gain Community Acceptance
* Guide Three: Gaining and Maintaining Community Acceptance
* Guide Four: Sample Materials for Non-Market Housing Suppliers
* Guide Five: Additional Resources
- BC Housing: Community Benefits of Supportive Housing (Infographic)
- Province of BC Income Assistance Rate Table (updated Oct. 2021) + Support & Shelter page
- Sooke School District #62 Healthy Schools, Healthy People infographic on youth issues (2019)
- The Roadmap for the Prevention of Youth Homelessness (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2019)
- Core Service Gaps in Indigenous Wellness (Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness)
- Gender Equality Project (Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness)
- BC Housing: Emergency Shelter Program Framework (2018)
- BC Housing: Tiny Homes – An Alternative to Conventional Housing (2021)
- The Pan-Canadian Women’s Housing and Homelessness Survey (Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 2021)
- An Affordable Housing Plan for British Columbia (BC Rental Housing Coalition, 2015)
- Ending Working Poverty in Canada: How To Get It Done (Vibrant Communities/Tamarack Institute, 2021)
- Situation Tables: A Model for Community Safety and Well-Being in British Columbia (BC Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General)
- Yes, In My Backyard: Welcoming Inclusion, Upholding Human Rights (Pivot Legal Society, 2020)
- COVID 19: The Beginning of the End of Homelessness (City of Victoria, 2021)
Media Coverage 2018/2022
- "Homeless In Sooke for Safety" - CBC (March 20, 2018)
- “Members of Sooke Affordable Housing Committee Appointed” – Sooke Pocket News (July 10, 2018)
- “Homelessness in Sooke – It Exists” – Sooke Pocket News (July 27, 2018)
- “More Information on the Sooke Extreme Weather Shelter” – Sooke Pocket News (Feb. 9, 2019)
- "Sooke Delivers on Helping the Homeless" - News Mirror (Jul. 13, 2020)
- "Sooke Mayor Pleads for Help with Homeless" - Times Colonist (Oct. 8, 2020)
- "Affordable Housing Projects Planned for Sooke Badly Needed" - Times Colonist (Feb. 17, 2021)
- “New Affordable Rentals, Supportive Homes Coming to Sooke” – CHEK News (Feb. 17, 2021)
- "Sooke Homelessness Report Highlights Lack of Services" - News Mirror (March 11, 2021)
- "How A Sooke Family Fell Through the Cracks into Hidden Homelessness" - Capital Daily (June 15, 2021)
- "Sooke Receives Over $400k to Improve Homelessness Services" - Victoria Buzz (Aug. 23, 2021)
- “My Morning with Victoria Bylaw and the Street Community” – Stephen Andrew (Oct. 9, 2021)
- “Shelter Residents Help Keep Sooke Clean” – Sooke News Mirror (Feb. 10, 2022)
- “Coldest Night of the Year Back to Raise $20k for Sooke Shelter Society” – Sooke News Mirror (Feb. 10, 2022)
Foundational Documents on Human Rights and the Right to Housing
- Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948)
- National Housing Strategy Act (2019) + Progress on the NHS (Government of Canada)
- A Primer on Housing Rights in Canada (Parliament of Canada)
- The Victoria Declaration: A Statement on Governance in Housing & Support Services (Renee Beausoleil, Matthew Wildcat and the UVic Indigenous Law Research Unit, 2020)
- United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (2015) + infographic
- Right to Housing Legislation in Canada + Assessing Canada’s National Housing Strategy (The National Right to Housing Network)
In an RV outside Walmart, a senior dreams of housing - Canadian Press, Jan. 27, 2024
"He's been on BC Housing's waiting list for subsidized housing for two years now. Every time he contacts the agency, staff ask him to check back in another six months, he said. FLight is among a large population of elderly people living in poverty or on its brink in British Columbia, where perennially high housing costs exacerbate countrywide cost-of-living woes. Government statistics show people 65 or older in B.C. are twice as likely as younger adults to be classified as having low incomes in 2021. But it wasn't always like this. Twenty years earlier, it was the other way around. Low-income rates among B.C. seniors have almost doubled since 2001, and are almost seven times higher than in 1996, according to government statistics."
~ "What Does It Look Like To Tackle Homelessness: Lessons from Medicine Hat" (Times Colonist, March 6, 2024)
"Even keeping track of the numbers is challenging; federal government statistics dating from 2017 indicate 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness in any given year and acknowledge that the hidden homeless, such as couch surfers or those going from shelter to shelter, were not included in those estimates. In 2021, Statistics Canada asked Canadian households whether they had ever experienced homelessness, and one in 10 respondents said they had. Advocates warn of a “humanitarian crisis,” and in some parts of the country, critics say government responses have been inadequate."
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