A recent data dump of 911 calls for service to homeless shelters and city parks in Victoria paints an unfair and inaccurate picture of criminality in the city and demonizes the homeless, says the head of Our Place Society.
“I think it’s unfortunate when ordinary citizens are led to believe that there is a crime wave going on in the city and at particular organizations when that isn’t in fact the case,” said Julian Daly, chief executive of Our Place, which has its roots on the front lines working with unhoused people and other vulnerable groups.
“The data is being used to make it look like our agency, Our Place, is a hotbed of criminality, that there’s a tsunami of crime going on at Our Place, when it’s not.”
Victoria Coun. Stephen Hammond recently shared the results of a freedom of information request showing the number of 911 calls for service placed to homeless encampments and shelters in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The data show there were an average of about 50,700 911 calls made each year in the city. Of those, about 12,400 were to encampments and social housing.
Nineteen locations accounted for 37,194 calls for service over the three years; the location singled out for the most calls was Our Place in the 900-block of Pandora Avenue, with 7,960 calls.
“The data is being used, frankly, to paint a picture that is not quite what it seems. To the uninitiated eye, these figures look appalling,” Daly said. “And I think most people would assume that those 8,000 calls over three years were all calls about crimes in progress or crimes that had happened.
“And if that was the case, I think people would be justifiably horrified and maybe even terrified.”
But an analysis shows most were not criminal.
For example, there were 2,464 calls to assist under the Mental Health Act, 1,557 for unwanted persons, 403 to check on people’s well-being, 364 to assist with fire, police or ambulance, 241 for bylaw infractions and 215 for disturbances — none of which are criminal offences.
“I think it’s also unfortunate if people get a view of agencies like our service providers who are doing our best by some very vulnerable people that we’re somehow perpetuating and creating a centre of criminality in our city,” he said. “That’s unfortunate because then people begin to have a really negative view, not only of service providers, but also of homeless people generally.”
That view is shared by the Victoria Downtown Residents Association.
Sandra Severs, president of the association, said while the data were interesting, they didn’t say much.
“It says that there are lots of calls and where the locations for those calls are, but it doesn’t say why,” she said. “I’ve worked in [Vancouver’s] Downtown Eastside and I know police are often called for wellness checks. So just releasing raw data without the ‘why’ question being answered is just not helpful.”
Elizabeth Cull, chair of the Burnside Gorge Community Association, said reading the data is complicated by the fact it covers the period of the pandemic and the quick tranformation of hotels in the Burnside Gorge area for use as supportive housing.
“They were very problematic, in part because hotels are not designed to be supportive housing,” she said.
She also noted all areas of the city are different, with some neighbourhoods more likely to report infractions and anti-social activity than others.
For his part, Hammond said he just wanted the public to be aware of the information.
“I didn’t have any bigger agenda. I wanted the public to have access to it and then they can also decide if they want to tell any of my fellow councillors that they want something more done,” he said, referring to a motion he brought to council asking for more security around supportive housing sites in the city.
That motion was defeated in July.
Hammond lays the blame at the feet of the province, which he said has established supportive housing in the city without sufficient supports or security.
“The difficulty is that around some of these places, it’s chronic disorder and intimidation and threatening,” he said. “There’s too much of it going on. I’m asking for more security and I’m in the minority on the council on this.”
Victoria Police Chief Del Manak said the data back up what he has been saying for years.
“With the addition and the higher concentration of supportive housing locations that have popped up over the last number of years, most of which are all within VicPD’s jurisdiction — and a lot of them are within the Burnside Gorge community — there is an increase of police calls for service within these locations and in the surrounding neighbourhood,” he said.
He said it doesn’t take long for a criminal element to infiltrate the sites, which inevitably leads to conflict and has created a significant additional workload for VicPD.
“It’s unacceptable,” he said. “There’s a significant amount of additional work. And this shouldn’t be a news flash for any member of council or any members of the public, because I’ve been saying this for a long time. When we ask for more officers, it’s because our work has increased substantially.”
Manak said many of the calls in and around the supportive housing units and encampments are social disorder calls — disturbances, suspicious persons, noise complaints and the like — that aren’t criminal, but still add to the workload.
He said because they are dealing with a challenging population whose needs are complex, the system needs to be doing better in its overall approach.
“There’s got to be a better way,” he said. “We need to address health care and mental health supports and services. We need to be talking about treatment beds. We need to be talking about accessibility to treatment. We need to be talking about prevention. We need to be talking about involuntary care. But there needs to be the political will and the appetite and the money and resources.”
Manak has high hopes for a City of Victoria panel that has been established to create a Community Safety and Well-Being Plan.
The 10-member panel, which includes Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto, Manak, Our Place’s Daly, Fire Chief Daniel Atkinson and medical health officer Mike Benusic, among others, will tackle immediate actions to reduce crime and public disorder, along with longer-term solutions.
Manak said he expects the group to be more focused on the longer term, and he said action is required now.
“I’m not prepared to forsake the health and safety and wellness of the people that need help today for who is going to be helped 15 months from now,” he said.
Severs, of the Victoria Downtown Residents Association, is also on the panel.
“There are some really complex problems that are not just municipal [issues], obviously, but federal and provincial,” she said. “We understand the problems have been decades long in their creation and they’re not going to be solved overnight.”
By the numbers
Total calls for service at parks and shelters, 2020-22: 37,194
The four sites with the most calls:
• Our Place, 919 Pandora Ave. — 7,960
• Rock Bay Landing, 535 Ellice St. — 3,337
• 844 Johnson St. — 3,185
• Beacon Hill Park — 3,141
Our Place
Total calls for service, 2020-22: 7,960 in 79 categories
Top 5 reasons for calls:
• Assist Mental Health Act — 2,464
• Unwanted person — 1,557
• Check well-being — 403
• Assist police, fire, ambulance — 364
• Bylaw — 241
Rock Bay Landing
Total calls for service 2020-22: 3,337 in 72 categories
Top 5 reasons for calls:
• Unwanted person — 597
• Check Well-being — 329
• Theft — 221
• Assist police, fire, ambulance — 192
• Property — 169
844 Johnson
Total calls for service 2020-22: 3,185 in 74 categories
Top 5 reasons for calls:
• Unwanted person — 534
• Check well-being — 269
• Assist police, fire, ambulance — 165
• Assist Mental Health Act — 138
• Disturbance — 163
Beacon Hill Park
Total calls for service 2020-22: 3,141 in 80 categories
Top 5 reasons for calls:
• Check Well-being — 403
• Disturbance — 252
• Property — 223
• Suspicious person — 185
• Assist police, fire, ambulance — 146
Source: Data from the Victoria Police Department, released via a freedom of information request
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