Victoria to remediate Central Park after flooding, campers moved vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Victoria Fire Department provided new tents and sleeping bags as well as cots to people in Central Park so they can transition to the hardscape of the Royal Athletic Park parking lot. Warm and dry supplies will also be distributed to people living in other parks, Helps said. Helps said B.C. Housing and GSL Group, which operates the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, are in talks about once again using the facility as a temporary shelter for people without homes. No decisions have been made. The emergency-shelter option is available because the Western Hockey League is not expected to resume play this season. The arena was used as emergency shelter for 45 people from May to September. Many later moved to supportive-housing in former hotels such as Paul’s Motor Inn.
A couple of volunteers will be on site at the intersection of Yates and Wharf streets to light candles commemorating lives lost, and while people can’t gather for an event, they’re invited to call in to ask that a candle be lit in honour of someone they’ve lost. Abells, who has volunteered with the committee for a decade, said it was important to find a way to commemorate people despite pandemic restrictions, noting the life expectancy for people who experience chronic homelessness in B.C. is between 44 and 49 years old. The advocacy groups are inviting those who haven’t been touched by homelessness “to take a moment and look outside and imagine just how difficult it is to be homeless,” Abells said. “It’s a hard time to be outside. It’s always a hard time to be outside and unhoused.”