Victoria is spending millions to tackle its homelessness crisis, stressing taxpayers

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Victoria is spending more than ever before to tackle its homelessness crisis, which critics argue is stressing taxpayers on an issue outside the city’s jurisdiction, while the province says its push for supportive housing must be supplemented by health care interventions for those in need.

Since 2023, the British Columbia capital has spent more than $12-million supporting homeless residents, helping to fund, among other things, a new supportive housing project on Pandora Avenue, according to city data. In that time, it spent another $11-million repairing damage caused by homeless encampments and increased bylaw presence.

Last December, Victoria released a statement indicating that continued bylaw enforcement on Pandora Ave., where the city is working to remove a homeless encampment, would cost $4.7-million, which could see a 3-per-cent addition to the city’s 2025 property tax increase.

Mayor Marianne Alto acknowledges that that‘s a lot of money – and that supporting homeless people is a provincial, not municipal, responsibility.

“But I defy anyone to be able to walk past a person in need and not think: How can I help? So, we do what we can and sometimes go beyond what would be usually expected of a local government,” she said in an interview.

How fentanyl transformed Victoria’s Pandora Avenue from downtown hub to open-air drug market

The Globe and Mail spent months speaking with residents, business owners, police officers, local politicians and drug users in an effort to chronicle the impact of the decline of Pandora Ave. The reporting is part of Poisoned, a continuing series examining the toxic drug crisis, and the impact it has had on the country.

Ravi Kahlon, B.C. Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, said the Globe investigation highlighted complex social issues playing out not just in the province’s capital, but in big cities across North America.

While there is much work to be done, he noted in an interview that B.C. has made progress. There were more than 40 homeless people living on Pandora Ave. six months ago; after supportive housing units opened, there are now 19.

Mr. Kahlon said one of the biggest challenges the province faces is where to put new supportive housing – a debate that stretched out for years in Victoria.

The city has struggled to accommodate a growing population of homeless people, especially after the fentanyl crisis took hold in the past decade. The mayor maintains that Victoria’s budget of hundreds of millions of dollars has enough room to respond to the emergency.

“I think it is reasonable to at least temporarily – and let me stress that, temporarily – invest some money in supporting some of our most vulnerable residents," Ms. Alto said.

Mr. Kahlon said all housing associated with supporting people in encampments is funded by the province, and that Victoria has advanced various programs independently.

“When there are co-ordinated services, we pick up the tab,” he said. “But when local governments do what they think is better, then those are on the local government.”

Councillor Stephen Hammond, a local lawyer, said the city shouldn’t be funding social housing with money that could be spent on parks and services that people expect.

He voted against a recent motion to provide $100,000 to provide storage for the belongings of homeless people on Pandora Ave.

“I understand the need for storage. The problem is, the City of Victoria is spending millions of dollars on services that are simply not our jurisdiction,” he said.

(Mr. Hammond, a federal Liberal and downtown resident, considers himself a centrist. He is the closest thing the city’s traditionally leftist council has to a right flank.)

Even those who serve people on Pandora understand there’s been a tipping point in public sympathy.

Julian Daly, chief executive officer of Our Place, a shelter that supports homeless people, said the disorder along the street is also impacting people who need the community centre’s services.

“We’ve lost clients – people who do not feel safe to come in, particularly older people,” he said in an interview.

“They are too frightened to come in for a free meal. So there is a practical and a moral urgency to change the situation and reimagine the public space on Pandora.”

Mr. Daly said he believes the provincial government has made significant inroads in addressing street homelessness. There are more than 404 shelter beds and 1,440 supportive housing units in Victoria; another 200 supportive housing units will open soon, B.C. Housing says.

But it is long past time the province bring in involuntary care, Mr. Daly said, noting that there are only 10 such beds in B.C., all of them located within a Surrey penitentiary.

“There is a very small group of people on Pandora who frankly will need some sort of institutional care for the rest of their lives. They will not be able to go back into mainstream society and be safe and healthy.”

Mr. Kahlon agrees, noting the challenges of supporting those who cannot sustain themselves. Part of the solution is complex care, he said; 20 units recently opened in the Victoria area, and more purpose-built facilities are planned.

“And, of course, involuntary care is another piece that is something that we’re advancing as well,” he said.

With a report from Andrea Woo