Victoria’s Hotel-Shelters Fiasco

BC Housing’s decision to invest heavily into getting homeless people off the streets straight into improvised housing has drawn a lot of controversy, to say the least; entire neighbourhoods have been turned upside down by the massive influx of unvetted residents migrating from downtown’s streets and tent cities. But to call them failures would be naive, and missing the point of these facilities: they were never about housing the homeless, but about COVID. The government treated the homeless like disease-spreading vectors, or in vernacular: plague rats. It feared the homeless spreading COVID to respectable taxpayers, that’s all. Once this pandemic is finally declared over, all of these facilities will close and we’ll be back to square one; in fact, the Travelodge was first to close already. Have no doubt that all of the others will close by year’s end.

But the most depressing part is that this disaster looked to us front line workers like a train wreck in slow motion. We watched people manifestly not ready to be housed being admitted only to be kicked out in a matter of weeks or months. I’ve lost count of the family members at Our Place that went from the streets or shelters into these hotels only to bounce back to the streets or the same shelters; at the overnight shelter where I’ve been volunteering for the past two years, this is a disturbingly common trend. These people may have issues like addiction, mental health disorders, severe lack of hygiene, or even hoarding, and yet they were just put into a shoe box and forgotten, all in the name of Housing First (and only).

Of course such locations could be made to work, but right now the number one obstacle is the government itself insisting on calling every shot without consulting anyone or listening to any complaints, and of course the government doesn’t give a shit as long as human vermin like us is kept in check and out of sight; I could never stress enough that the government’s plan for homelessness amounts to pest control. I have access to inside information which I shall not disclose due to my relationship with Our Place; let’s just say that behind closed doors, outreach workers have only pejorative epithets for BC Housing’s autistic handling of homeless shelters and hotels.

Let’s be frank: the government cares not to help us, while outreach cannot help us. Listen to them all, to hear that everyone’s hands are bound by red tape. Except ours, ironically. That’s why it’s up to us to stand up for each other against the system instead of trying to work with it. So far only protests and tent cities have forced the government’s hand, because nothing else ever works.