Some North Park residents and business owners say a two-hour community meeting this week to discuss a controversial facility to help the homeless did little to assuage their fears or shed light on how it will operate.
More than 300 people spilled out of the Ambrosia Banquet and Events hall for the Tuesday night meeting to discuss the Dowler Place facility, where SOLID Outreach is expected to help people find housing and treatment services.
“I didn’t think the city and SOLID [Outreach] brought the community together. If anything, it worsened the public divide,” said North Park business owner Firmin Wyndels, who said the meeting lacked focus and felt like an attempt to pacify a neighbourhood that has been outspoken in criticizing the project.
Wyndels said he had hoped to get some answers on how the city settled on SOLID to run the facility and what resources would be available to deal with what the neighbourhood fears will be a negative impact.
“I think that the city owes the general public and the taxpayers of Victoria a bit of an explanation for how this came to be, because it has terrible optics,” he said. “We deserve some answers as to how our tax dollars are being spent.”
The city provided $300,000 to help SOLID Outreach Society buy the property at the corner of Dowler Place and Princess Avenue, which sold in June for $1.65 million.
The city also committed up to $1.8 million in operating funding for one year to SOLID, which will own and run the facility.
North Park resident Neal Yonson said answers from the city on Tuesday night were not adequate. “The city is saying we don’t know what it is until we’ve opened it. If you’re going to direct-award a contract for that, there should be a pretty clear purpose and outcome that you’re hoping to get out of that,” he said.
Yonson noted when the facility was first announced, it was going to operate from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., but now it’s a 24-7 centre. He also said the city was short on detail when it came to its plan to evaluate the impact of the facility.
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto told the crowd the city is in talks to hire a firm to evaluate the impact to the surrounding neighbourhood.
North Park resident Wally Mutch said being told to give the facility a chance and wait to see the results isn’t good enough. He said residents already saw the impact of the homeless camp that was allowed to set up at Central Park next to the Crystal Pool during the pandemic.
“Our front yards, backyards, parking lots turned into open drug use, open sex, open defecation, an array of theft and violent criminals threatening us,” he said. “That went on for months and months.”
He said people are already sleeping on the street on Dowler, which he called a sign of what’s to come. “That’s what’s so upsetting. We weren’t afforded an opportunity to sell our homes or move or anything — this was just dumped on us,” he said. “It’s just very sad and disheartening.”
Jack Phillips, executive director of SOLID, paints a different picture.
In an interview Wednesday, Phillips said SOLID is committed to improved communication and better relationships with North Park residents.
He said all North Park residents will get a leaflet with SOLID’s contact information, as well as an invitation to tour the facility.
“Because the way you diminish fears is with information and knowledge,” he said. “If anybody has a real question and really wants to come see what it is, so they don’t have to just make up ideas in their head, we’re going to fully allow neighbours and any interested parties to come do that.”
What they will find is a community centre, he said, where 25 to 30 people who are managed by housing case-management or a treatment-management team will be there during the day.
The covered courtyard at the facility will allow group meetings focused on wellbeing, clinics and Indigenous-led programs, he said.
“It’s a community centre,” he said. “You could be there for a meeting. You could be there for support. You may be there for food. It’ll be exactly like what any other community centre is like, except one that is aimed at getting people the services they need.”
The facility will not be a consumption site for drugs, he said, though he acknowledged that drug use will be allowed.
The idea is to keep drug use out in the open and reduce the chances of someone overdosing and dying because they have hidden away to get a fix, he said.
“We see [drug] use at Dowler as being episodic,” Phillips said. “If you were, say, waiting in line for food and you were drug sick, could you potentially try to address your health issues and still get the food? Yes.”
He said others will be taken to one of the open consumption sites SOLID runs.
As for the facility being open 24 hours, Phillips said that will eliminate the issue of people hanging around.
“With 24 hours of operating, there is no people showing up at opening or hanging around at closing,” he said.
The facility, currently undergoing renovations, is expected to be ready to open in November as winter weather hits.
Alto said she has heard the concerns raised by local residents but urged them to give the centre a chance. “Give them just a little time. And you know what? If it’s a disaster, we’ll fix it. But you need to let them at least try.”
She said the alternative is to do nothing, which means that nothing changes.
“And everyone tells me that we need to make a change.”
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