HOMELESS UNDER SIEGE

Need For New Shelters Seen As Gentrification Brings Conflict To The
Waterfront

Outside the Streetlink shelter on Store Street, the homeless mill
around aimlessly, mixing with shoppers, condo residents and hungry
knots of people on their lunch hour heading towards pubs and bistros
in the newly trendy area.

The "gentrification" of the old town waterfront, with inevitable
conflicts between the two groups, is one reason Victoria desperately
needs two new homeless shelters, says Cool Aid Society executive
director Carol Finnie.

Soaring numbers using the shelter and problems between those people
and hard-to-house residents in 26 apartments above the shelter are
making the need more urgent, she said.

"It's not a good social atmosphere when you have the street population
mixing with the people in long-term housing who are trying to change
their lives," Finnie said.

Apartment residents, many of whom have multiple problems such as
mental illness and addictions, are trying to break a cycle of evictions.

But, they often find it hard to say no when homeless friends, who have
used up their allotted seven days a month at Streetlink, decide to
sleep on their couch, Finnie said.

"People are couch surfing and creating shooting galleries. They're
using our staircases as bathrooms and there are numerous drug deals.
It is not conducive to stable long-term housing," she said.

About seven people have been evicted in the last year, largely because
of the behaviour of their visitors, rather than their personal
behaviour, said shelter manager Don McTavish.

"And these folks are in desperate need of this sort of housing. Often
they have no other option except for sleeping rough," he said.

The ambitious plans put together by the Cool Aid Society includes two
new 55-bed shelters, probably in an industrial area such as Rock Bay
or the Esquimalt side of the Johnston Street Bridge.

"We are looking for land and funding sources now," Finnie said.

One shelter should include a safe injection site for residents, wet
housing for alcoholics and transition housing which would allow people
to stay longer than in traditional shelters, said Finnie and McTavish.

The existing building should be used to expand the medical clinic,
which is now on the bottom floor, and to increase the number of
long-term units, possibly in single-room occupancy style, they said.

The medical centre sees about 1,200 people every two weeks and 70 per
cent of the patients are either HIV-positive or have hepatitis C.

"They are complex people with complex health problems," Finnie said.

Shelter staff have seen an explosion in the number of people staying
at the 55-bed shelter with 3,100 people using it between April and
August, compared to 1,700 for the previous 12-month period. At least
two dozen are turned away each night.

On Jan. 15 there will be a major effort to count the number of
homeless people in Greater Victoria and the hard data is likely to
support the bid for more shelter room, Finnie said.

Initial estimates put the cost of building two new shelters at $10
million and operating costs, if they are similar to Streetlink, are
likely to be about $3 million annually.

Funding for the shelter comes largely from the provincial government,
with other contributions from federal programs, the United Way and
donations.

Finnie and McTavish believe their chances of success will increase
hugely if their file is passed from the ministry of human resources,
which does not see shelters as a core responsibility, to B.C. Housing.

Murray Coell, community, Aboriginal and women's services minister, who
is responsible for B.C. Housing, said Cool Aid must put forward its
plans through the recently-struck premier's task force on
homelessness. Chaired by Premier Gordon Campbell, it is made up of
three ministers -- including Coell -- and the mayors of the province's
major cities.

The mayors will be coming forward with strategies to deal with
homelessness within two weeks, Coell said.

Lowe said he is aware of the Cool Aid proposals and will look at them
in context with plans put forward by other social service agencies.
"There obviously is a need and, if you don't ask, you don't receive,"
he said.

There are problems with people hanging around outside the shelter when
it is full, Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe said. "It doesn't prove to be a
welcoming place for everyone else, so it probably would be a good idea
to see if there are other locations." The city is supportive of having
some type of safe injection site and it could make sense to have it
tied to other services, Lowe said.