NSUN member Niki Ottosen, founder of The Backpack Project, was the first speaker of six to address council at their meeting on April 11, 2024. Niki spoke about the harassment of unhoused people by City of Victoria bylaw officers. The text of her address is here and you can watch her starting at about 23:00 in this video. Resources that you might find helpful are shown in the list at the bottom of the page.
After Niki spoke we heard from Tammy, who currently lives at VicWest park and who is regularly targeted by City of Victoria Bylaw Officers. She and Niki both spoke to Mayor and Council on January 11, 2024 as well (see Niki starting at about 12:37 and Tammy directly after in this video from the January 11th Council meeting). Tammy’s moving testimony on April 11th begins at about 27:07 in the video from April 11, 2024 .
Office of the Federal Housing Advocate – Final Encampment Report
“… the Federal Housing Advocate launched a systemic review of encampments in February 2023. This systemic review has been carried out pursuant to subsection 13.1(1) of the National Housing Strategy Act.
In October 2023, the Advocate published an interim report setting out the context of the crisis and documenting in detail what had been heard through the engagement process. The engagement process consulted directly with people living in encampments, local community advocates, Indigenous governments and representative organizations, and duty-bearers across all governments.
This final report includes the Advocate’s conclusions about the factors leading to the rise in
encampments and, most importantly, the concrete measures that must be taken by all governments to fulfill their human rights responsibilities in order to reduce or eliminate the need for encampments.” (page 5 of the report)
CHEK news coverage from January 2024
Kori Sidaway from CHEK News interviewed both Niki and Tammy (who sometimes goes by Tammilynn) for this January 9, 2024 article (so before they presented to Mayor and Council).
Neighbourhood Solidarity with Unhoused Neighbours 