As cold weather in Victoria seeps in this year, no concerns are more significant and consequential than those coming from the city’s unhoused communities. While a record number of shelter spaces have opened before drops in temperature, this year’s most recent population count in Victoria found that nearly 1,750 people, including 318 living unsheltered, are currently experiencing homelessness across the region, a rise of five percent from the previous count.
Our Place Society director of communications Grant McKenzie says that supporting vulnerable communities is a priority for safety during the season. This winter, the non-profit will be opening an emergency shelter in Saanich’s Broadview United Church to further address the issue.
“It’s the first time in quite a while we’ve expanded the emergency weather program, but we just saw the need to have overnight shelter for people as the weather gets worse,” he says. “Mostly we focus on what we call seasonal shelter… but we’ve seen that there’s still people that really need that emergency weather shelter, so we’re opening that.”
McKenzie says that volunteers are continuously needed to sustain the standard of care.
“[Our volunteers] do everything from chopping vegetables, because we serve a lot of meals, to organizing the clothing that we give away for free when people donate the clothing, to working in the hygiene area—we have four separate shower units, and everybody gets half an hour in the shower… The volunteers and the staff, they go in and they clean that shower after every use,” says McKenzie. “And that’s how we show dignity and respect for people coming in. And I love that aspect of it. I love that aspect of giving someone that clean shower that they go into and that dignity… We also have volunteer drivers that go and do pickups and things like that and then sorting. There never seems to be an end to it.”
McKenzie says that actively supporting the community can be an opportunity for a change of perspective for volunteers, suspending the divide between housed and unhoused individuals.
“When you volunteer and you meet people one on one, you realize that everybody’s got a story. Everybody doesn’t want to be on that street… They’ve all had trauma and abuse in their lives, which is what has led them down that path to the street. And then that leads into addiction; it’s usually not the other way around—it’s homelessness leads to addiction, not addiction leads to homelessness. I think that that perception changes,” he says.
Our Place has a sponsor breakfast program where companies buy a breakfast and then come in and serve it to those in need.
“And that’s been really interesting,” says McKenzie. “We had one in and it was a bank and the bank manager, I don’t think had ever been near Pandora. And he came in and he was a little bit frightened because it was new to him, it was something he hadn’t experienced. And by the end of serving breakfast and talking to people and hearing some bad jokes, something like that, it completely changed how he perceived homelessness in the city… And I think that’s it—it’s that connection, that human-to-human connection that can really change perspectives.”
McKenzie says that stigma has long been a struggle to combat. He says that while it has been continuous, the ubiquity of social media usage has continued to sever individuals from confronting the homeless crisis with compassion.
“It’s easy for people to fall into that bubble, a self-serving bubble, where you just hear facts that reinforce your view of the world rather than a bit more all-encompassing. And I think that the majority of people, especially people who don’t interact with people on the street, they would rather the homelessness was hidden away almost rather than being solved. Those of us on the frontlines, we want it solved, not hidden away. And there’s a big difference,” he says. “I think it’s always been that way. It’s not anything new. I think it’s a little bit harder sometimes if I’m talking on the radio or something like that. It’s easy for people to miss 99 percent of what I’m saying because it may go against what they believe. So they latch on to one percent that matches what they believe in or something. And so it’s a continual battle just to humanize people who are really struggling.”
McKenzie says that supporting people struggling with addiction, mental health, and housing requires advocacy in parliament just as much as on the frontlines.
“I think a big thing is reaching out to the Ministry, advocating, saying, We need more health care for people on the street. We need to be taking care of people. We need more housing built, but we need the supports that go with that housing. We really need more psychiatric care for people on the street. We’re seeing far too many people on the street that are suffering from mental-health issues that are not getting any help,” he says, “and so I think that just even letting the government know that this is a concern is helpful.”