by Mary Griffin from Chek News, January 25, 2025
After Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said he wants to halt supportive housing in the Downtown Eastside on Thursday, Victoria and Nanaimo mayors are saying want a similar approach here.
“I’ll be bringing a motion to council to pause any net new supportive housing units in the city of Vancouver until we see increased supportive housing availability across the region,” said Sim on Thursday.
He says the Downtown Eastside shoulders 77 per cent of the region’s supportive housing, with just 25 per cent of the area’s population. He wants to revitalize this area of Vancouver, not build more supportive housing.
Instead he suggests a regional approach to services and housing. On Vancouver Island, some mayors are pushing for a similar approach.
In Victoria, Pandora Avenue has become known as a concentrated area where open drug dealing and substance use occurs, and people resort to sleeping on the sidewalk.
Downtown Nanaimo has a similar area where people relying on gather.
Victoria’s Mayor Marianne Alto shares Sim’s frustrations.
“For a very long time I’ve been suggesting strongly to my colleague to pitch in, and do their share with supportive housing, and sheltering, and services to their own folks who need all of those things,” Alto said.
According to the last homeless count , there are almost 1,700 unhoused residents in Greater Victoria. Sidney, Saanich, and Langford plan to open more emergency shelter beds.
But the majority of services, and housing are in Victoria.
“I’m very encouraged by that. Still frustrated at the pace. Still concerned that it hasn’t happened before now,” Alto said.
Leonard Krog, Mayor of Nanaimo, estimates there are between 900 and 1,000 homeless people in his city. He says there is a desperate need for supportive housing, and services across the mid-Island.
“We are dealing with a crisis of misery on our streets, and street disorder everywhere. And I understand what mayor sim is trying to say. We have your children, your husbands, your wives, your daughters. And we can’t carry the burden anymore,” Krog said.
B.C.’s Housing Minister, Ravi Kahlon, said he understands the frustrations, but communities have to come together.
“The biggest challenge for addressing homelessness is not money. It’s communities coming forward, and saying these are our residents. They are our neighbours. They are our kids. They are our aunts, and uncles. And we need to find a way to get them indoors,” Kahlon said.
Sim hasn’t said when he plans to present his motion for Vancouver’s councillors to consider.
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