Victoria music school says former tent city residents have few supports

A new supportive housing facility on Johnson Street in Victoria, which houses many former occupants of the recently-closed tent city, is running into trouble with a local school.

Victoria Conservatory of Music CEO Jane Butler McGregor says noise and verbal assaults from residents of the facility are a problem for theschool and its students, who range from preschoolers to post-secondary students.

"We're very supportive of this project being a supportive housing project, and I stress, supportive housing," she told All Points West host Robyn Burns. "That's what we as neighbours, and they as residents were promised. There are no supportive services in place yet."

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McGregor says B.C. Housing and the Portland Hotel Society, which is the operator of the facility, outlined a list of services residents would be provided with as they live at the facility, such as food and medical services, addiction support, counselling and programming.

She says because those services aren't provided, residents are left to fend for themselves and find those services elsewhere.

McGregor says B.C. Housing has agreed to provide a security guard to the school, but she says other neighbours are being impacted, and there needs to be a security plan for the entire neighbourhood.

The Portland Hotel Society did not respond to All Points West's request for comment.

With files from CBC Radio One's All Points West

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