Please don't call the cops on homeless folks, who you may see/run into at some parks, if they're not bothering anyone at all & are trying to keep to themselves. I've met several different homeless folks all around this large urban park & never felt scared around them. I sometimes bring them free foods & first aid supplies.

We desperately need more social & transitional supportive housing in #VictoriaBC. All municipalities should be working on this - together. This is a shared social responsibility & it crosses every municipal border. Demonizing, dehumanizing & criminalizing homeless folks hasn't helped at all - it is also very unkind & lacking of humanity.

#HouseTheHomeless #YYJpoli #BCpoli #CDNpoli #HousingCrisis #SocialHousing #TransitionalHousing #WarOnThePoor #PovertyIsNotACrime #ClassWar #PSA

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/29/harvey-coyne-is-facing-triple-heart-bypass-surgery-his-social-housing-provider-wants-to-evict-him

I can't really see the problem here.

I've seen some very nice benches in Perth public parks and shop doorways can be made quite comfortable you know.

#HouseTheHomeless
#Poverty

My thoughts in hashtags.

#StopCorporateWelfare
#IncreaseWealthTaxes
#PutPoliticiansInPrison
#DisruptTheRichAndHeartless
#BoycottIsrael
#DeathToNazis
#FeedTheHungry
#HouseTheHomeless
#ACAB
#UBINow
#ElectoralReform
#MakeFascistsFearful
#DOXFascists
#BuildMutualAidCommunities
#ResistanceIsCitizensDuty
#BanishBillionaires
#TaxChurches
#PeopleHavePower

#StopStreetSweeps #HumanRights

Street sweeps of the homeless are just another form of taxpayers funded, state sanctioned, social murder. These inhumane actions have never worked to alleviate homelessness crisis, nor lowered crime rates, nor have they improved our community safety as a whole. People die from street sweeps. We have desperate needs for both more social & transitional supportive housing for folks living at & below poverty lines. We have desperate community needs for mental health & addictions recovery/support services to be funded better & access to services be fast-tracked. There's long waiting lists for folks seeking help & that's been an health care issue for decades - under 2 swinging door governments. There's still too much stigma & ignorant judgements towards our most marginalized citizens.

A society that chooses to judge, ignore, dehumanize & ostracize the most marginalized folks within it, is a sick society. It really does take a village of diverse kind citizens to help heal it. You can always make a small ripple of difference to help out in your own local area 🙏

#BCpoli #YYJpoli #HouseTheHomeless #FeedTheHungry

*My social justice activist friend, Crystal, was interviewed for this article.*

As the City of Victoria conducts what outreach workers say are deadly sweeps of Pandora Avenue, those who facilitate unhoused individuals into addiction rehabilitation centres say there’s not enough spaces to meet the needs of those who are left on the capital city’s streets.

“What I’m faced with is, where am I sending them?” said Theresa Reeve, executive director of the relatively new non-profit Westcoast Recovery Outreach.

Reeve says private treatment centres only take a select number of government-funded clients, leaving empty beds open for higher paying private clients.

“I could fill up their treatment centre if they would allow me,” said Reeve. “But they only let a few government-funded beds. We need to increase those government funded beds. These people deserve a chance just like everybody else.”

“People having to wait anywhere from two weeks to three months waiting to get into a detox bed is not acceptable. We need a better system now. We just had an election about. Where are all the beds they promised they were going to build?”

The Minister of Health told CHEK News in a statement that her government is adding new services without specifics.

https://cheknews.ca/not-enough-housing-or-rehab-beds-for-victorias-most-broken-says-outreach-worker-1228846/

#BCpoli #YYJpoli #BuildSocialHousing #BChousing #HousingCrisis #OutreachWorkers #FrontlineWorkers #RehabBedsNeeded #BCHealth #AddictionsTreatment #YYJ #VictoriaBC #CutTheRedTape #AccessToTreatment #HelpTheHomeless #HouseTheHomeless #BCNDP #HumanRights #AddictsAreHumans #StopTheStigma #HelpTheMarginalized #StopJudgingStartHelping #VancouverIsland #VanIsle #OurCommunityIncludesHomeless

Most letter writers to our local newspaper, #TimesColonist are quite conservative & cruel in how they think about marginalized peoples. You rarely see compassion in TC letters published, that Mr. Chris Holiday has shown. I don't know the person but grateful locals like them exist.

"Give more respect to those unhoused
I have been appalled at the increasing level of stigmatization and hatred directed toward the unhoused population.

I live on Pandora Avenue and frequently walk by individuals suffering most severely from our province’s housing crisis. I’ve witnessed individuals in crisis and using threatening language towards passersby but I have also witnessed verbal harassment of unhoused individuals coming from the balconies of luxury apartments.

Public safety is a two-way street, everyone deserves the right to safety and dignity. A 2023 study by the Ministry of Housing reports that 67% of unhoused individuals have lived in their community for more than five years and 23% for their entire lives.

These are our neighbours, and they deserve respect just as much as us who are housed.

Chris Holiday

Victoria"

https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters-sept-16-facing-financial-disaster-lightstations-not-lifeboats-respect-for-the-unhoused-9525284

#YYJpoli #VictoriaBC #YYJCitizens #BreakTheStigmas #HelpTheHomeless #HomelessLivesMatter #HelpNotHarm #PovertyIsNotACrime #HouseTheHomeless #HomelessnessIsNotACrime #BCpoli #SocialHousingNow #HousingCrisis #RentalCrisis #BCNDP #YYJ #CDNpoli #Marginalized #VulnerablePopulation #Stigmatized #StigmaKills #SmashStigmas

August 30, 2024. #HouseTheHomeless #StartTrek

https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/video/Y2jFFEXQw_2hrGX5mrGX90zqkzR4vi7G/ (DS9 S3 E12)