The City of Victoria will reallocate more than $10 million — including $2.5 million from a controversial plan to revitalize Centennial Square — to tackle rising street disorder downtown.
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto announced the plan Wednesday, saying the money will kickstart its 99-point Community Safety and Well Being plan, with the biggest-ticket item $3.75 million toward a rebuild of the 900-block of Pandora Street, which has become a haven for tent encampments and drug trafficking.
“This can’t wait — in six months you’ll see a difference,” Alto said in front of city hall.
Another $1.9 million will go to hire 12 additional bylaw staff, while $1.35 million will be for nine additional police officers to be hired or redeployed “as quickly as possible” to focus on Pandora Avenue, Princess Street and the rest of downtown.
A total of $624,000 is earmarked for non-profit providers to help people coming off the street, and $1.95 million to establish new short-term shelter options, including up to two managed, secure, emergency shelter spaces.
Alto said the city is investing a significant amount of money in testing additional temporary housing solutions for those it wants to move off the streets into care, but added: “We don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like at this point.”
The city must step in “at least on a temporary basis for a couple of years and create some destinations for these folks,” the mayor said.
While services that address poverty, homelessness, addictions and health are primarily the responsibility of the provincial government, Victorians expect their city government to respond to these crises, Alto said.
She said council had to make some “really tough decisions” to set aside some important priorities because “this is the issue of this term and we need to solve it.
“Am I going to magically wave a wand and say on Tuesday you’re going to see it all better? No, if I could, I could have done that a long time ago,” said Alto.
In terms of the extra police officers, Alto said there is an urgent need for additional police to show that “criminals can no longer thrive in Victoria.”
Alto said the $10-million plan will not result in increased property taxes or budget increases.
Aside from the Centennial Square project, the mayor said $4 million will come from the city’s financial stability reserve, $1.5 million from funds allocated for Royal Athletic Park, $1.65 million from the city’s current housing reserve and $700,000 from planned reserve contributions for 2025 and 2026.
“These are hard choices,” said Alto. “All the programs from which these funds will be taken are important, but the urgency of responding to the city’s social-disorder crisis is paramount.”
Wednesday’s announcement came on the heels of a rash of violent incidents on Sunday, including two assaults on Yates Street, but Alto said the plan has been in the works for months.
On Sunday about 9:35 a.m., Victoria police responded to a report of a man with a weapon threatening firefighters, preventing the crew from entering a building in the 700-block of Queens Avenue. The man was arrested and another man with serious injuries was discovered inside the building.
Patrol officers later found a man seriously injured on Courtney Street about 1:30 p.m., and arrested a suspect in an assault on a business owner in the 600-block of Yates Street just after 6 p.m. At about 7:30 p.m., police received reports of another assault with a weapon, this time in the 900-block of Yates Street, resulting in the arrest of a male suspect and seizure of a weapon.
Alto has called the 99-point plan adopted June 19 to address street disorder a blueprint for action that will be tested and tweaked as it evolves.
Alto was tasked to work with other levels of government to fund some of the recommendations, while council directed city staff to enact immediate initiatives to address disorder in the streets.
The plan’s 99 recommendations are divided into eight categories, ranging from housing and health care to aesthetic changes to the downtown and increased bylaw and policing presence and enforcement.
The recommendations contain 26 actions, including increasing the visibility of both police and bylaw enforcement, improving safety and security of parkades, improving communication with the business community, piloting a corporate block watch program, investing in downtown amenities like benches, trees and lighting, and having city staff create a plan to better manage current and potential encampments.
Business owners frustrated with social disorder downtown have demanded immediate action from the mayor and police.
Victoria Police Chief Del Manak has said he has committed to the business community to do everything he can with the resources he has to prioritize foot patrols and police visibility downtown, and to work more closely with bylaw officers.
The city said at least two of the nine officers will be dedicated to working full time in partnership with bylaw officers.
Cutting $2.5 million from the estimated $4.5 million plan to revitalize Centennial Square will result in work in the eastern half of the square — the Sequoia and upper sections — being delayed, the city said.
