NSUN and other local organizations were thrilled to meet with federal housing advocate, Marie-Josée Houle, she visited Victoria in 2022. Her fact-finding tour focused on the right to adequate housing for First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples, encampments, and the financialization of housing.
The resulting report draws on the knowledge and insights of those with lived experience and advocates, and makes 27 recommendations related to:
1. Security of Tenure
2. Availability of Services, Materials, Facilities and Infrastructure
3. Affordability
4. Habitability
5. Accessibility
6. Location
7. Cultural adequacy
Read the report on the Canadian Human Rights Commission’s website.
Why B.C.?
Despite progressive housing policies and positive steps to curb the financialzation of housing, the report states: “B.C. faces grave violations of the right to adequate housing that require immediate attention. For example, in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and other downtown areas with concentrations of unhoused people, there is a lack of habitable conditions in emergency and supportive housing buildings, growing encampments across the province, the privileging of housing as a commodity for profit over housing as a place to live, and a severe lack of affordable housing.”
Houle went to Stadacona Park while in Victoria and chatted with campers sheltering there. She also connected with Dr. Bernie Pauly, well-known advocate for the homeless in Victoria and scientist at the Canadian Institute of Substance Use Research (CISUR), as well as representatives from the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness (now known as the Alliance to End Homelessness in the Capital Region), service providers from the Cool Aid Society, and other organizations and people with lived and living experience of homelessness.
What You Can Do
We encourage you to read and share the report with your network. It will give readers a much better understanding of what it is like to be homeless or precariously housed in Victoria and other areas of B.C.
You could also share the report and recommendations with the Mayor and Council, and ask what actions they will take to address the issues raised.
- Copy and paste the following list of names into the To: field of a new email: ccoleman@victoria.ca, Dave.Thompson@victoria.ca, jcaradonna@victoria.ca, kloughton@victoria.ca, mayor@victoria.ca, mdell@victoria.ca, mgardiner@victoria.ca, shammond@victoria.ca, skim@victoria.ca (optional cc: neighbourhoodsun@gmail.com)
- Put in the subject line “Recommendations from the Federal Housing Advocate’s Observational Report – August 2023”
- Use the suggested email text and screenshots below, or write your own message in the body of the email, and send.
Message 1:
Dear Mayor and Council:
People currently sheltering in parks and along Pandora Avenue need to have basic services like those of us with homes, including clean water, sanitation, electricity and heat.
When will the City of Victoria be enacting the recommendation on the availability of basic services on page 49 of the B.C. Observational Report from the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate?
Message 2:
Dear Mayor and Council:
The City of Victoria bylaw officers, accompanied by police, persist in harassing people sheltering in parks and confiscating their belongings, including food and survival items like tents and sleeping bags. This is often for minor infractions of the 7-7 bylaw, or simply for not moving quickly enough to take down their tents in the morning. This is a violation of people’s human rights and does NOTHING to help them move out of homelessness.
I would like to know, when will the City of Victoria enact the recommendation on security of tenure on page 48 of the B.C. Observational Report from the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate?
Message 3:
Dear Mayor and Council:
One of the recommendations from the B.C. Observational Report from the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate is to enact the following on security of tenure:
The protocol (PDF) was written by Kaitlin Schwan, Lead Researcher for UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, and Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing (2014-2020), and offers detailed and concrete methods for creating encampments that are designed with a human-rights based approach in mind.
I believe it would be in the interest of both the City of Victoria and unhoused people for the City to adopt this protocol. Is this something you are planning to do?
If so, I would appreciate a response with more information and your proposed timeline. If not, I would appreciate an explanation as to your decision and more information on how you will support unhoused people in our city in the midst of the affordability crisis.
The suggested emails above could also be modified and directed to provincial government officials like the Minister of Housing, Ravi Kahlon (HOUS.minister@gov.bc.ca) and/or Premier David Eby (Premier@gov.bc.ca).
Neighbourhood Solidarity with Unhoused Neighbours 