THE BIG ONE: Tents allowed all the time; latest message from Centennial Square homeless camper Kristen Woodruff, under giant Christmas Sequoia tree near Victoria City Hall

November 27, 2008 · No Comments

CCC BLOG EXCLUSIVE:

kristen0008

FORMER VICTORIA MAYORAL CANDIDATE

SENDS MESSAGE FROM PUBLIC LIBRARY

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
http://gregoryhartnell.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/the-big-one-tents-allowed-all-the-time-latest-message-from-centennial-square-homeless-camper-kristen-woodruff-under-giant-christmas-sequoia-tree-near-victoria-city-hall/

CCC

Fond, fond greetings:

We are still with tents under the tree in Centennial Square.  It appears that the City has no authority to do anything about it, and knows it; they have said in the paper that they will issue tickets, but this is not happening.  The bylaw enforcement policy is, indeed, of no force and effect and the Crown knows this and so the City cannot enforce the 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. ban on tents.  Our tent was up all day yesterday; there are currently three tents up in Centennial Square.  Constable Jamie Pearse of the Victoria Police Department is roaming around but he has no authorization to do anything, which is causing him a degree of frustration.

The City is in a closed meeting with the Coalition to End Homelessness inside City Hall as we speak, and has been since this morning.  I saw Dean Fortin on his way into the meeting and re-issued the invitation to dialogue.  There has as yet been no attempt to dialogue with us.  The City is scrambling to figure out what to do.  I maintain that we can sit down together and talk about what strategy in regards to interpreting the Supreme Court ruling would work for the highest good of all parties involved.  As of yet, despite the invitation to dialogue, there has been no invitation.

CAMPERS HOPE FOR APOLOGY FROM CITY AND DIALOGUE WITH THEM

We will remain at Centennial Square with the tents until such a time as the City engages in an open, fair, honest, public dialoge about its actions in regards to the Supreme Court Ruling — which dialogue would begin, I should think, with apologizing for enforcing an illegal policy.  I remain open to the possibility.

Meanwhile, I met briefly with the head of the Downtown Victoria Business Association.  He is concerned that the tents will still be there on Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. when the City expects several thousand people to show up for the grand lighting of the Christmas tree (yes, we are camped under its nicely-decorated branches).  He feels it might send a signal to the whole country that the City of Victoria doesn’t have control of its citizenry — and that the economy here is in very bad shape.  Which it is.  I assured him that we are not in Centennial Square to cause an unnecessary stir, only to, at last, have the viewpoint of homeless tenters heard by the city — and not brushed aside, or ignored, or squewed by the hand of corporate media.

This could be the Big One, friends.

HOMELESS TENTERS’ NEEDS

We could use some tents, sleeping bags, food, and company — and maybe a laptop from which to write reports.  I left briefly to come write this, but essentially we are not moving from under that tree.  Now it becomes a test of patience, with hunger, fatigue, and cold creeeping up on us.  But the Spirit of Truth and Justice is keeping us strong.  It’s so beautiful.  Several new people sought refuge under the tree last night, and we expect more again tonight.

At this stage, we are thinking the bet strategy would be a bunch of disparate “tent villages” — clusters of five or six tents at different places around town, spawned as the Spirit moves anyone to spawn them.  The City has no right to enforce the daytime limit on tenting, and KNOWS IT HAS NO RIGHT.  If anyone establishes “satelite” tent villages on other City property across town, the police will have a VERY hard time enforcing it.  So, NOW IS THE TIME.

CITY MAY TRY SOMETHING AT LAST MEETING OF COUNCIL

THURSDAY NIGHT, NOVEMBER 27

The City’s next strategy will be to try to rush a bylaw through Council, maybe at tomorrow night’s meeting — so come to that and come in droves: 7:30 p.m. City Hall.

I think they will try to make the 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. ‘tenting time’ into a bylaw (now it’s just a “bylaw enforcement policy” referring to the section of the bylaw that was struck down).  But the Crown seems to be saying that they won’t pursue charges even on such a bylaw, because such a bylaw would most likely not stand up to the B. C. Supreme Court ruling.

So — the next move the City may try is to assign a special place for Tent City and restrict the erection of temporary abodes on all other public land.  Which would be bad — in some ways worse than the current situation, in which a person is free to camp ANYWHERE on public land after 7 p.m. and before 7 a.m.

We maintain that such a City-sanctioned tent city would not be sufficient to meet the needs of people who genuinely need rest — indeed, such a City-sanctioned tent city could become a chain-link fence enclosed internment camp — or, if not that bad, then barely better than Streetlink or the Salvation Army or any of the other shelters, only without walls.  The City is trying its damnedest to figure out how it can interpret this ruling in a way that still allows it to RESTRICT THE RIGHTS of the homeless as much as possible (albeit with the rhetoric of ‘wanting to help’).

IDEAL SCENARIO: A BUNCH OF TENT VILLAGES

Our ideal scenario — and the scenario that seems to follow the natural functioning of the city, meeting both the needs of the ever-growing population of displaced persons (aka “the homeless”) would be a bunch of tent villages, with small populations — say five or six or seven or so tents and maybe thirteen or so inhabitants (numbers being determined organically in response to need).

These tent clusters could occur in zoned areas of existing parks, in concession to the City and its quite reasonable and understandable desire to have the parks be available for use beyond us.  There would have to be a large number of such zones around town to allow provisions for growth.  Canada is entering the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and there will be many many more homeless people across the country over the next few months.  And Victoria is the warmest city in Canada, so, like it or not — Here Comes Everybody.

FREE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITES

 I think we as a city can prepare for them in a way that is humane, hands off, and creative — and that the so-called “homeless problem” will flower into a whole new way of life, with free, autonomous communities living on common land, taking care of each other.  This would not only be good for the “homeless,” it will also be “good for business” — these communities will make Victoria one of the most exciting place to visit.  And, too, many people whose interests side with “Business” may well find themselves quite unexpectedly homeless soon.

And then these communities can get on with the work of preparing Victoria for upcoming food shortages — by tilling the land of our City’s many parks, and planting food where once only grass and ornamental flowers grew, thus easing the whole citizenry into the new era that will, like it or not, most likely soon be upon us.

NATURAL EXTRAORDINARY MIRACLES: THE MORE THE MERRIER

Sometimes miracles seem so natural that we forget how absolutely extraordinary they are.  So, please come see us in Centennial Square.  The sooner the better and the more good folk the merrier.

With love,

Kristen Woodruff.

CCC

Categories: Concerned Citizens' Coalition History · Neighbourhood park preservation · OUTSIDERS · SOCIAL HOUSING · abstinence detox multivitamin therapy · neighbourhood recovery houses · twelve step fellowship meetings
Tagged: CENTENNIAL SQUARE 'REVITALIZATION' COST: $1600000, KRISTEN WOODRUFF, LAST COUNCIL MEETING THURSDAY NOVEMBER 27 7:30 PM, SOCIALIST MAYOR-ELECT DEAN FORTIN, VICTORIA CITY COUNCIL