Tent Cities

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The BC Liberals are calling for an immediate end to the tent cities that have sprung up in Campbell River as well as larger cities like Vancouver and Victoria.

BC Liberal press release

In a press release, Roxanne Helme, the BC Liberal candidate for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, said, “This is a matter of public safety. Each unsupervised 24/7 tent encampment is an extremely dangerous place to be.  We know people are smoking drugs in nylon tents; criminal elements have infiltrated the camps to prey on the vulnerable people within them; there is violent crime, in addition to drug and property crime, hiding within their walls; they are unsanitary; there is no compliance with public health directions in response to COVID 19 and so the list goes on. This not to mention that the 24/7 tent encampments are preventing the use of our parks as they were intended and that they are damaging their delicate ecosystems in the process.”

Ms Helme added, “the only ‘solution’ that John Horgan and the NDP have come up with is to warehouse some of the homeless population in derelict hotels without sufficient supports.”

Aside from the suggestion “they must be appropriately housed,” she did not explain where the people in these camps would go.

The BC Liberal candidate for North Island, Norm Facey, is not available for comment.

Homelessness in Campbell River

Campbell River’s homeless population is now probably closer to 100 than the 81 listed in 2018.

The city was thinking of setting up a better run camp, using protocols to protect them from COVID, last Spring.

Enter BC Housing

A provincial agency, BC Housing, came forward with a more permanent solution.

BC Housing, the City of Campbell River and the Vancouver Island Mental Health Society are partnering to build 50 new homes with support services for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness at 580 Dogwood Street. 

The province is also funding two other Campbell River building projects that target specific needs. The Fir street residence will have 49 units for women and children fleeing violence. Linda’s Place will have 27 units for people with low to moderate incomes, including those with brain injuries.

In addition, BC Housing purchased the former Rose Bowl restaurant, in Campbell River, as a transition house with beds for 20 houseless people until more permanent accommodation can be found.

At a meeting last summer, Kristi Schwanicke, Coordinator of the Campbell River & District Coalition to End Homelessness, “All of these projects, coming online so quickly, will have a tremendous impact over the course of the next six months.”

BC Housing Projects on Quadra and Cortes

The projects BC Housing is currently funding on Quadra and Cortes Islands are for seniors rather than homeless people.

However a 20 unit project in Mansons Landing is, at least in part, a response to Cortes Island’s seasonal homelessness problem. Every year, tenants are evicted from their homes during the warmer months, to make way for the more lucrative tourist trade, are forced to set up tents, couch surf of find some other accommodation until the season is over. If their property is rezoned, the Rainbow Ridge project will be seeking founding from BC Housing.