Ending Homelessness — From Managing It to Ending It
Victoria has spent years responding to homelessness through plans, programs and crisis interventions. The core building blocks of a better system are already well understood, here and in other communities. Yet, successive City leaders have failed to turn those ideas into a coordinated system that works consistently and delivers lasting results.
As Mayor, I will judge progress by whether homelessness is becoming rare, brief and non-recurring, and whether fewer people return to the street after receiving help. I will make those outcomes a core measure of City Hall’s performance and use the Mayor’s office to drive the coordination, accountability and follow-through needed to achieve them. I will not treat another plan, funding announcement, or service announcement as success in itself. Success means people staying housed and the same crises not returning.
What Better Follow-Through Looks Like
Victoria cannot solve homelessness on its own. Housing, mental-health care, addiction treatment and income supports depend heavily on the Province and regional partners. But the City can make sure the local pieces work together, that responsibilities are clear, and that gaps are escalated and fixed rather than left unresolved.
The City has recently added useful shelter, housing and safety measures. I will keep what works, but launching a program is not success in itself. I will make these efforts work together and judge them by whether people remain housed, repeat crises decline and improvements last.
People cannot become stable if housing, mental-health care, addiction treatment and other supports operate as separate systems. Much of that care is provincial, but as Mayor I will use the City’s role to push for the pieces to connect and for gaps to be dealt with rather than passed from one agency to another.
No public system should treat homelessness as an acceptable discharge plan. As Mayor, I will bring Island Health, corrections, detox, treatment and housing partners together to close the gaps between existing discharge and release processes. The aim is a planned destination, a named handoff and follow-up where placement is available, with immediate escalation when no safe placement exists.
Someone has to be responsible for the result. For recurring problems, I will insist that the City and its partners agree who is leading, what outcome is expected and when progress will be reviewed. When something stalls, it should be escalated, not left to drift between agencies.
Better coordination also means knowing when help actually worked. Where privacy law allows, the people responsible for housing and support should be able to see what help was offered, whether it succeeded, and where the system broke down. As Mayor, I will strengthen existing coordination by establishing a standing operational table of City, police, health, housing and outreach leaders for recurring problems, with named responsibility, regular follow-up and shared information where law and privacy permit.
Temporary Success Is Not Enough
Emergency shelters, temporary housing and clearing unsafe locations are necessary in some situations. But they are steps, not success in themselves.
When people return to homelessness after being housed, I will press BC Housing, Island Health and service providers to identify why placements are failing, fix recurring gaps and report what changes. If disorder disappears from one park or block only to reappear somewhere else, City Hall should not call that success.
So for every major City-supported homelessness initiative, City Hall should make sure the responsible agencies can answer the same questions:
- Did it last?
- Did the problem return or move somewhere else?
- What failed?
- What changes now?
Public Safety and Compassion Belong Together
When Systems Fail, Everyone Pays
When services do not work together, the costs are pushed onto businesses, residents, frontline workers and taxpayers. When public systems repeatedly fail, businesses and residents should not be left to absorb the cost. Businesses pay for security, repairs and cleanup, residents lose confidence in public spaces, frontline workers deal with the same crises repeatedly, and taxpayers pay for responses that have to be repeated.
Victoria businesses already have access to security and vandalism grants through the Downtown Victoria Business Association. As Mayor, I will review whether that support should be expanded and targeted to areas facing repeated public-safety impacts, including better lighting, cameras, locks and other practical measures that improve both business and street safety.
Show the Public What Worked
For major homelessness initiatives, City Hall should report:
- What did we do?
- What did it cost?
- How many people remained stably housed?
- Did problems decline without simply moving elsewhere?
- What changed when results fell short?
When things improve, we should know what worked so we can keep doing it, expand it where it makes sense, and adjust quickly if the results start to slip.
As Mayor, I will not wait for another plan to tell us what we already know. I will make existing coordination, named responsibility and follow-up work in practice, and report whether people actually remain housed.
These are commitments I would begin acting on as Mayor for Ending Homelessness. I will not wait for a Citizens’ Assembly to start implementing what we already know. The Citizens’ Assembly can still help test priorities, identify gaps and weigh difficult trade-offs. Its role is to improve decisions as the work moves forward, not delay action on problems that have already been studied for years.