lesliboldt.bsky.social
Active, activist, advocate, communicator. President and owner of boldtcommunications.com
308 posts
953 followers
615 following
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I was literally blowing my nose (thanks to allergies) when I saw this!
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What we can do — what we *do* do — is advocate to the Province to get on top of it, and we contribute meagre, ancillary supports wherever we can.
But, trust me, it is absurd to expect cities (Victoria, Nanaimo, Vancouver, Kelowna) struggling with this issue to realistically solve any of it alone.
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Some folks see this as passing the buck. But it’s not. I would LOVE to be able to solve homelessness and addiction.
But as a city, we have no mandate, staff, resources, jurisdiction, or capacity to do much about it. We don’t build housing or run detox centres.
*All* of that falls to the Province.
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And yet people often think that, since it occurs partly in cities, that cities should take responsibility.
We lack family doctors in Victoria. Is that on the city? No, we don’t control healthcare.
Homelessness and drug addiction are similarly outside of our control and ability to solve.
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Having now been a local government elected official I can say it is absurd to expect cities — ours or any other — to manage the humanitarian crisis that is opioids.
All of the solutions fall to senior governments: complex care, detox, supportive housing, etc.
Cities are completely outgunned.
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To be clear — and Globe and Mail journalists should understand this fact — jurisdictional responsibility in Canada works roughly as follows:
Cities: local roads, parks, arts, land use
Provinces: housing, healthcare, education
Feds: national security, trade, criminal law, money
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These are complex problems that need solutions that are also hard. We need a BC and federal gov't who are willing to do complex and difficult work of finding those solutions in partnership with local governments and authorities. These issues are urgent. Why are we still not treating them this way?
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This same story isn't just Victoria's - it's playing out in communities throughout BC and across Canada. The province needs to listen to housing and community advocates, to city councillors, to the police and to the community members who are telling them that the current model isn't working.
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Today, while I rarely feel unsafe (though there was a big guy under the influence yesterday moving around on the sidewalk in away that might have taken me out if I hadn't veered out of the way), I frequently feel uncomfortable. I think it's important we distinguish btwn these emotions.
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in Victoria, often in motels not made for this kind of housing. This created more public discomfort with supportive housing (though I have purpose-built supportive housing for youth next door to my building and I think it's actually improved the neighbourhood) and an increase in street activity.
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residents here were shocked. "Where did all these homeless people come from?" Like cities around the province, the first theory was they'd come over from the mainland. This couldn't be a homegrown problem, could it? This moment - and the pandemic - led to a rapid increase in supportive housing...
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and homelessness was out of sight, confined to hidden corners of the city, like under the Johnston Street Bridge. As housing prices climbed and more dangerous street drugs like fentanyl came on scene, the drug and homeless crisis also grew, leading to the tent city on the courthouse lawn. Many...
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I moved to Victoria from Vancouver about a year and a half ago. For the better part of 15 years in Vancouver, I had offices or work spaces in the city's Downtown Eastside. Coming to Victoria, it's way chiller, but it's also very different from the city I lived in, in the 90s. Back then, drug use...
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Thanks for the shout out, Stephen!
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The PM said he would and @gregorrobertson.bsky.social has been repeating the words “non-profit and co-op housing” over and over again. Proof is in the pudding, you are correct there.
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Both goals can be achieved at the same time, if government invests in non-market and co-op housing (non-profit). I don’t see a problem yet.
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Is this real or a clever headline?
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Please do
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The smart vote in Victoria is Laurel Collins.
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100%
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Strutty dancing in the kitchen while pouring my coffee, followed by shadow boxing on my walk to the Y (like no one's watching - no one is) before confidently brushing and flossing my teeth to the beat, obviously