The legality of overnight sheltering in Victoria parks is headed back to court, as a group of unhoused people challenges the city’s restrictions.
The case comes 15 years after a precedent-setting ruling from B.C.’s top court that found Victoria could not ban people from sleeping in parks overnight if indoor accommodation wasn’t available.
Alex Kirby, the lawyer representing the three petitioners, says that since that ruling the city has been slowly “chipping away” at the number of parks in the city that unhoused people are allowed to sleep in.
He said there were just five such parks left when the city closed two more where the petitioners were sheltering, Irving Park and Vic Park West.
“It’s very clear from the case law that you can’t put a blanket ban on sheltering outside, so it follows that you can’t achieve the same result by chipping away at people’s rights one by one until you get to the point where it’s not practically possible to shelter outside,” he said.
Kirby said Oaklands, Gonzales, and Pemberton are now the only remaining parks in which people can legally shelter, and that all three are far from the city core where services for the homeless are located, and difficult to access for people with health or mobility problems.
“What we have now is a situation where at least hundreds of people are relying on outdoor shelter and now the only place they can feasibly do that anymore are these little slivers of suburban parks far from all the things they need to survive,” he said.
The legal challenge is seeking to reverse the overnight shelter ban at Irving and Vic West parks.
“Staff maintain excellent relationships with health, housing and various outreach organizations in order to connect people experiencing homelessness with the resources they require to improve their life situation,” the City of Victoria said in a statement.
The city added that all three people named in the complaint had been “offered housing.”
But some on the front line of the city’s homeless crisis say the offer is often not enough.
Sylvia Ceacero, CEO of the Alliance to End Homelessness in the Capital Region, said people are often offered shelter that simply doesn’t meet their needs.
“If you look at two of the complainants they come from abusive relationships,” she said.
“And many times they may be in a shelter where they are needing to sleep with the same person they were escaping from. Or they may just feel unsafe because they have that trauma.”
In other cases, Ceacero said people who are in recovery or who aren’t drug users are offered space in a shelter that isn’t “dry,” something that won’t work for them.
Many shelters do not allow pets or couples, either.
Fred Cameron, manager of operations at Victoria’s SOLID Outreach Society, said the region lacks a “continuum” of housing that will allow people to move from the street to encampments through shelter to supportive housing and eventually market housing when they’re stabilized.
“We are constantly pushing people around saying you can’t be here, you can’t be there, but there is nowhere to go,” he said.
“You have to offer a solution if you are going to push people like that.”
The case is expected to go to court next spring.