Cool Ideas for Next Victoria Homeless Encampment

On December 1st I rallied unhoused community members and supporters for the purpose of setting up an encampment at Centennial Square, right by City Hall—even though I had brazenly advertised it for the courthouse grounds instead. It didn’t survive past morning for lack of numbers; I had planned for at least three times our mere dozen campers in order to make a stand against bylaw enforcement. It was a cool idea though.

But you know where would be cooler than right by City Hall? On council members’ front lawns—or close enough to make them uncomfortable. Since elected officials’ home addresses are made public by Elections BC, I know where they live, so I went out scouting their neighbourhoods looking for more cool spots for an encampment, and here’s what I found.

Marg Gardiner

Uber NIMBY councillor Marg Gardiner resides at 21 Dallas Road, deep in James Bay, on the fourth floor of a condo building called Shoal Point. That means she doesn’t have a front lawn…

… but it turns out the building is surrounded by lawns. It’s located right in front of Fisherman’s Wharf Park. which isn’t listed in the Parks Regulation Bylaw. Furthermore, it is close to Fisherman’s Wharf proper, which provides public washrooms. Besides, this park is simply huge and could hardly be fenced off. Hundreds of tents could fit there with room to spare, and Marg couldn’t avoid the sight of the encampment every time she leaves her home.

Feeling more adventurous? Shoal Point also stands right beside the Canadian Coast Guard’s Victoria Base, which of course means it’s federal land, and there’s a lot of green space right by the street corner to pitch one’s tent on. Assuming of course you have a plan to take on the Coast Guard. But hey, who knows how it would turn out since we’re clearly going off script.

Matt Dell

RollerCoaster Tycoon Matt Dell lives at 1525 Fell Street. His home does have a modest front lawn, but there’s way more space right past the sidewalk, and also in front of adjacent homes. But wait, we can do way better than this.

Right across the street is the Sundance-Bank Elementary School. Granted, the school grounds are fenced, but they’re only meant to keep out hobbits. And while the Parks Regulation Bylaw bars encampments within 50 metres of schools, the school grounds proper fall under the Greater Victoria School District so there’s some weaselling potential here—and besides, who among us gives a fuck at this point.

I’m saying this because there’s an abandoned building at the back of the school grounds that would be perfect for squatting. Once again it’s fenced off but actually accessible by anyone but hobbits. Hey, it’s an elementary school, what do you expect?

And right beside it is Agamemnon and Eleni Kasapi Park, which is an even better spot, and not listed as prohibited under the Parks Regulation Bylaw. City staff must have assumed the entry to be redundant since it is located near the school, but they have miscalculated here. Here’s a loophole: the language of the bylaw is “within 50 metres of a school as defined in the School Act” and the exact language is “(c) the facilities associated with the unit“. The catch is that the park is located more than fifty metres from the closest facility still in use, the actual closest being condemned and the entire surrounding area fenced off as shown above. Under this interpretation, this park falls between the cracks of the Bylaw and overnight sheltering is technically allowed. Not that we give a fuck anyway, indeed.

Jeremy Caradonna

Wannabe fascist Jeremy Caradonna, who would dispatch the military to march the unhoused to a concentration camp, lives at 1334 Gladstone Avenue. It doesn’t have much of a front lawn as you can see…

… but it is located about one block away from William Stevenson Memorial Park, a huge expanse of green space behind the Fernwood Community Centre which isn’t on the list of parks where sheltering is prohibited. Once again city staff have made a miscalculation: even though it is located near Victoria High School, and the community centre is located within fifty metres of the closest school facility (which is the volleyball sand courts), the park proper isn’t, so it’s clear for overnight sheltering as long as one stays at least eight metres away from the playground. And then yeah, who among us gives a fuck whether it’s legal at this point, because the council doesn’t give a fuck either.

Steven Hammond

Mad as Hell NIMBY Stephen Hammond lives at 1311 Rockland Avenue, which doesn’t have a front lawn worthy of mention as you can see, as it stands on a narrow strip behind a stone wall and thick hedges, flanked by his neighbours’ driveways. That being said…

… it sits right in front of some green space ready for occupation. According to VicMap, the area in red doesn’t belong to any lot, which means as long as one stays four metres away from the wall (which is a private property line), that space is up for grabs. Granted, that doesn’t leave much space, but several tents could still fit. Wanna make Hammond mad as Hell? Hurry up folks, space is limited!

More cool spots?

Common sense dictates there’s a way around any set of rules, whether by weaselling through the cracks (as this article illustrates) or by turning the rules against the rulers (as I did by getting the whole Victoria courthouse playground fenced). Authorities cannot fence off every open space without keeping the NIMBY out, and they cannot erect fences around themselves without turning their own fiefs into prison camps.

If city councillors fence off every park, let’s camp on their front lawns. If they erect fences around their front lawns, let’s squat their living rooms via loopholes through their front doors. And if they barricade themselves in their homes, let’s besiege their front doors and starve them.

Besides, these fences don’t come for free and raising taxes for millions of dollars’ worth of fences indiscriminately keeping everyone off green spaces would certainly be a tough sell for the electorate. In doubt, target the enemy’s wallet.

I’m just the wrench in the gears. I hate plans. Yours, theirs, everyone’s. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans. Schemers trying to control their worlds. I’m not a schemer, I show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.

—The Joker, The Dark Knight (2008)