Seasonal shelter in Victoria urges more action on homelessness after deaths

The executive director of Victoria's Native Friendship Centre says his staff are reeling after two guests at the centre which operates as a seasonal shelter died within days of the shelter shutting down for the season.

Ron Rice says it's been an exceptionally difficult time.

"There's certainly a lot of anger and hopelessness and a big dose of guilt. If we had stayed open for one more month, would this have happened?" Rice said to host Kathryn Marlow on CBC's All Points West.

"I don't feel like we're doing enough. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone in the system but I just feel hopeless."

Rice says the centre is a designated seasonal shelter that can provide temporary overnight housing for 25 people. It opens in the fall and closes at the beginning of April. This year, because of the pandemic, the shelter's operation was extended until July 1.

He says it was generally the same group who stayed at the shelterover the past few months, ranging from10 to20 people. Becausethey were considered housed, they were not among those peoplegiven hotel rooms as a shelter solution.

Rice says about nine people ended up on the streets after the July 1closure. One of those people died within 30 hours of the closure from an overdose, and another died nine or 10days later from an incident of violence, he says.

Problem in need ofcreative solution

He says while there's been admirable work done during the pandemic by BC Housing, the City of Victoria, the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, and others to secure housing for the region's most vulnerable, he says this is a decades-long problem.

"That is encouraging but why do we need a global pandemic to unite this way?"

Rice says it's time to push further for more creative solutions and make sure people have a home, not just shelter.

"We need to look at this chaos happening around us and find an opportunity to try some new things," he said.

"It's time that we make some big changes for ourselves and find some people who are willing to try with us."