The Independence Settlement Project

Focus magazine ran a contest asking for submissions on plans to house homeless. The winner has been announced and there is an outline of the project in this months magazine.

I encourage everyone to go out and get a copy so that they can see the plan for themselves. (There are pretty pictures and plans!!)

Anyways here is my personal take on this project and I would love to hear what others think about this important issue.

First off I think it is great that we are at a concept stage with some plans for dealing with this problem and I hope that we see more ideas rather than simply looking at one and saying that is the only way to do this.

I think that this concept is making a couple of critical mistakes that in the end will be harming those that we are planning on housing in this project.

In the late 1960s and 1970s many stand alone projects were built often with an eye to Le Corbusier, with these large buildings surrounded by trees and water. Pretty much all of these projects have been failures. In effect creating prisons for the poor, seperated away from others in society. This project has clear hints of that.

The second problem I have is the temporary nature of these buildings. I understand the idea that this is public land someday we are going to have many children running around and we will need these schools again. The problem is that much like the government buildings on Superior Street these areas are most likely not going to be reused again as schools and we will end up with a project that cost very little to build but will be an expensive headache in the future due to temporary buildings being used beyond their intended lifespan.

My idea is that we need projects like Concert Properties in Vancouver along False Creek. That means allowing signifigant market housing for the building of similar quality social housing. This keeps cost down for the taxpayers but also allows the residents of the social housing not to be stygmatized by their place of residence.

Anyways I would love to hear everyone else's take on this project as it is exciting that the discussion has begun on this sort of thing.

I prefer your idea about using the False Creek experience here in Victoria.

Was the figure touted for the elementary school idea somewhere around the vicinity of 2000 homeless persons?

It's sort of strange how two of the proponents behind this "homeless ghetto" concept fight tooth and nail against market housing and higher densities but they see no problem with 2000 people living in an elementary school. When it's market housing, density above 3:1 is too much density. But when it's housing for the homeless in a residential district, the sky's the limit?

Actually the plan is to have 4 or 5 sites around the CRD that would house the 2000 people. Some school sites and other underused sites owned by the government or crown corps like Hydro. So that is like 400 to 500 people a site. Still quite a lot.

The density for each place is actually quite low. Still apart from Blanshard elementary the munis would have to fight tooth and nail to get any of these passed. That is another problem with this model they are assuming a perfect world where everyone wants these projects in there backyard.

There are elements of the plan that are good. The "pod" buildings are very versatile and can accomodate many different floor plans.

The 2000 figure was set by the contest organizer.

It's hard to tell what the density would be by looking at the plans but I imagine it's well under 3:1.

Interesting that Richmond Elementary is just a few metres inside the Saanich border.

Looks like about 1.5 to 1 if that...

Today's T-C has a report, by Louise Dickson, on the Focus- and Van City Credit Union-sponsored forum on homelessness that took place last night at Alix Goolden Hall: [url=http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=9890e9c4-2c54-48cf-a7c7-f63d77c749da&k=72176:f072b]Forum focuses on solutions for homeless[/url:f072b], subtitled, "Pre-fab units presented as possible fix." According to the article, Alix Goolden Hall (seating capacity: 800) was "filled." Diane Carr, one of the team members who submitted the winning entry to the Focus design contest, called on the audience to continue their support to find solutions. The article notes that a key problem with the submission by the Independence Settlement Project was its plan to appropriate Richmond Elementary school.

The meeting grew heated as people who live near the vacant school said they didn't want to walk through school grounds and encounter people in social housing.

SD61 School Board chair Michael McEvoy also pointed out that the school board doesn't have the authority to give land away, and that, essentially, they need market value for it. The article notes, "But Carr was undeterred," apparently on principled grounds (that "it's wrong to sell public property, especially when it's needed for public purpose"). It'll be interesting to see how this progresses, and whether or not the empty school in question gets repurposed for anything.

They should sell the land with an eye to turning part of it into social housing and part into market housing. No one is going to want to just fund these things.

If they want this to proceed they should not get so bogged down on silly details like the land can not be sold.

Here's another approach... Dignity Village.. Portland...

Bottom up...

http://www.outofthed....org/index.html
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Though not expressly for the homeless this is an apparent success for social housing.
http://www.seattlehousing.org/Development/highpoint/highpoint.html

I presume the grounds of the Vic West Community Centre were not available?

No they just reopened after spending a bunch of money fixing it up.

Richmond school neighbours fret at social housing proposal
Vacant building could be used as a supported living centre for the homeless
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Erik Kaye at Richmond School: Neighbourhood association hasn't taken a position yet. They're still in an information-gathering mode.
Photograph by : Darren Stone, Times Colonist
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Font: * * * * Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, January 20, 2007
Some neighbours of Richmond elementary are worried a social housing proposal will turn the vacant school into a transition centre for alcoholics and drug addicts.

The citizen's proposal to use the vacant school as a supported-living centre for homeless people who need short-term care and shelter has no official sanction yet, but the objections of some residents shows how difficult it will be to find a location to provide housing and treatment facilities for the homeless in Victoria.

Erik Kaye, a director with the North Jubilee Neighborhood Association, said neighbours are only reacting to rumour, lack of advance consultation and the scarcity of information.

The proposal, called the Independent Settlement Project, was presented to a standing-room only crowd at a public forum on homelessness at Alix Goolden Hall Thursday night. Social activist Diane Carr recommends converting the school into a supported-living centre for homeless people who are in treatment or recovery from drugs and alcohol. The centre would include an intake and assessment centre, a 24-hour nursing station, cafeteria, dormitory, common room, athletic room, workshops and classrooms. Carr is also calling for the construction of low-cost housing for about 190 people at the cost of about $7.5 million.

The neighbourhood association executive will meet next week with the proponents of the proposal, said Kaye.

"We haven't taken a position on the proposal," said Kaye. "We're still in the information gathering mode. Certainly, we support the principle to provide more housing and alleviate the homeless crisis. The issue is 'Is this the right place? Is this the right proposal for our neighbourhood?"

Residents have legitimate concerns about safety issues such as dealing with the mentally ill and the drug-addicted. They also want to protect green space and playing fields and the Bowker Creek watershed, said Kaye.

"But I think they're jumping the gun when they talk about walking around in a park littered with syringes," he said.

The association wants to make sure there's a venue for residents to have their voices heard, said Kaye.

"At some point, if this goes forward, we need to have a full public meeting in the neighbourhood."

Despite the neighbours' concerns and the refusal of the Greater Victoria School District to lease the land for $1 a year, Carr and her team of experts are optimistically plowing ahead with their plans to help the homeless.

Consultant Irwin Henderson said he accepts the board's need to make a return on its properties even though it will make the project more expensive.

"But we are not deterred by that and will continue to develop the concept," he said yesterday.

In deference to neighbourhood concerns, Carr has already started calling the transition centre a support centre.

"People seem to have images attached to a transition centre," she said. "That's not the kind of transition centre we're talking about. What we're proposing is a new kind of transition centre. Lots of people are on meds and they need supervision. This is not meant to be a place supervising drug users."

The support centre will have a strong educational component as well as job training, literacy classes, healing circles and sheltered workshops, said Carr.

"There's a strong chance there will be a percentage of people who are mentally ill, but they will be in supportive care," she said.

Aha, so it begins! :smt064

Why does the burden of saving the world suddenly seem to be falling on the Oaklands/Jubilee area? How come these proposals are never slated for Oak Bay or James Bay or Broadmead or places like that?

...the objections of some residents shows how difficult it will be to find a location to provide housing and treatment facilities for the homeless in Victoria.

Um, yeah, when you propose doing something like this on the site of an elementary school in a 100% residential area you're bound to run into a bit of opposition.

Did you hear they're going to be building a new mega mall at Town & Country? How about including social services facilities in developments like that?

The folks behind this proposal have nothing to gain politically by pushing this onto municipalities in which they won't run during an election. On the other hand, Jubilee was at one point the turf of councillor Madoff who is closely knitted with the individuals behind this proposal. Since C. Madoff now represents Vic West, the plans may head across the harbour before too long. Problem is, Vic West already deals with social issues that gravitate from downtown and Esquimalt. Placing a one-stop social services site in that community would give residents the impression that the social issues of the entire City and Region are being unfairly pushed to a neighbourhood that has traditionally been one of the scapegoats for Victoria's problems.

I'm not against social services by any means, but haven't we learned that concentrating social services and social housing in one small area leads to problems?

There's definitely no shortage of social housing in the Oaklands/Jubilee/Hillside area.

Propose a mixed-use lowrise development in the village areas of Cook Street or James Bay and bunches of people go ballistic with misplaced outrage and righteousness.

Propose a rehab centre on the site of an elementary school in an exclusively residential area and community opposition is equated with some sort of crisis of human decency.

When something's appropriate it gets criticized for being inappropriate, and meanwhile we're trying our best to bash square pegs into round holes.

allowing signifigant market housing for the building of similar quality social housing. This keeps cost down for the taxpayers but also allows the residents of the social housing not to be stygmatized by their place of residence.

I totally agree.

I'm wondering why this proposal is effectively kicking the homeless out of Victoria and into Saanich and creating a ghetto? They could use Burnside school instead, it's in the City of Victoria and is closer to downtown. Why didn't Diane Carr propose this for her own neighbourhood? Perhaps she running in the next election and doesn't to make waves in her own municpality?

Richmond school is in Victoria, though.

Burnside elementary is currently used by SD61's home learning link, which offers educational services to home schooled students.