Victoria city councillor Ben Isitt proposes options to replace tent city

As the potential demise of Victoria's tent city looms, a Victoria city councillor says the city should be prepared to build another one — but this time with supports in place.

"I think if the city and the province had stepped in back in November, we could have established a facility and not had the anarchy that has prevailed," Coun. Ben Isitt said. 

Last week, the provincial government recently applied for an early injunction to shut down the homeless camp at the courthouse, citing safety issues.

A report from city staff says the city has spent more than $500,000 dealing with the impacts of the camp since it began last fall. 

With the potential shutdown around the corner, Isitt argues the supervised camp idea is worth another look.

The province is promising to buy two buildings soon to serve as social housing. Isitt says if the campers remain, he will call for the city and province to work together on a managed camp, likely on vacant industrial land near the downtown core.

Camp proposed at Topaz Park

Last spring, Isitt proposed creating a small homeless camp at Topaz Park. He argued that working with a service provider to manage homeless campers would be better and cheaper than having them spread around the city.

Council backed away from the idea after intense backlash. But a few short months later, homeless campers created their own tent city on the provincially-owned courthouse lawn.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said she believes small managed camps could work, but she wouldn't propose one now. 

"We've kind of ruined things as far as the innovation that can happen because of the way this tent city has played out, and I think that's very very unfortunate," she said. 

Helps says the two buildings the province is promising to buy should give all the campers a place to go.

With files from Keith Vass