Mayor holds town hall with North Park residents regarding controversial Dowler Place facility

Residents of North Park gathered at Ambrosia Hall on Tuesday evening to engage with Mayor Marianne Alto and SOLID Outreach Society about the new services hub at 2155 Dowler Place. 

The facility has been a major topic of contention amongst the residents of North Park, who fear it will change their neighbourhood for the worse. 

The Dowler Place services access hub is to be run by SOLID, who provide harm reduction services for Victoria’s unhoused community as well as providing other services such as supportive housing to help the city’s most vulnerable. 

Jessica Woollard, a communications professional who has been aiding the residents of North Park, told Victoria Buzz that at the town hall meeting, the room was packed with well over 200 people. 

The event’s moderator, Brenda McBain, opened up the session by reminding attendees that the purpose of the meeting was to allow residents to ask questions and for Mayor Alto and SOLID to provide answers. 

She specified that the questions asked were to be specifically about the services that SOLID would be providing and how they may impact the community—the session was not meant for political rhetoric or criticism of the City’s policies regarding unhoused people. 

However, very few of the speakers adhered to the intended topics. 

Mark Wilson, Senior Director of SOLID Outreach Services started the session off with an update on the project and a breakdown of the services to be provided at 2155 Dowler Place. 

“The focus is to get folks in to immediately access housing, detox treatment as well as health supports,” Wilson explained. 

He added that what often happens is that people don’t or can’t get access to those services and end up in and out of shelters. 

“This site is specifically about folks who are ready to access housing.”

Wilson said that right now, the Dowler Place service access hub is still undergoing renovations, but they are operating a small office space on-site made up of housing workers. 

“On an invite basis folks are coming in when they’re ready to fill out the forms and we are getting people into housing,” Wilson said. 

“At this point we’re housing about four people per month… and our detox teams are supporting about 30 people a month to have access to treatment.”

In the coming months, Wilson said that as the space opens up, in October the courtyard will be open to provide space for groups of people from the unhoused community to engage with one another through creative means. 

“The goal there is that some folks work best when we bring them in through creative arts,” he said. 

Wilson added that by engaging people this way, they are able to determine how they can support these individuals to get them into treatment or housing. 

In November, he said the warehouse space on-site will be open, which will allow the access hub to provide 20 to 25 beds for temporary sheltering and to provide meals for those who need them. 

“The shelter running at Dowler is focussed on people who are waiting on getting into treatment and housing, so the people who will be staying there will be working directly with us and our support groups,” Wilson explained. 

“The context of this work is that it’s fitting in with the other services we’re offering in town.”

Related:

• North Park residents call for a work stoppage at new Dowler Place service hub
• Not in my backyard: Petition launched to stop safe-consumption site from opening in Victoria

Many people there spoke out against the Dowler Place services hub, many people spoke in support of it and one common theme was the residents’ outrage over the fact that the City did not consult with them over the location of the hub. 

Mayor Alto spoke to this notion by reminding the room that the City does not need to implement a consultation process for this type of endeavour and added that if this process was completed, no one would have been for the project, and likely no one in any area of Victoria would be. 

“I will own, absolutely, my own stigma and stereotyping if in fact, the majority of you in this room would have said that they would even consider this or said yes,” said Alto. 

“When I put that to [room] in July, not a single person said they would even consider it. These are absolutely crucial services that are required because of the gaps in the larger social and health services being provided by the Province.”

“The City has decided, as have many of our colleagues across the province, that we are no longer going to wait for someone to fill those gaps,” Mayor Alto concluded.

Additionally, many who stepped up to the mic to ask questions expressed fear over the possibility of drug use in the area. 

The question was: If the Dowler Place service hub is primarily for helping people access housing, then why will it include “peer-based illicit drug-use” as both SOLID and the City have said there would be no drug-use on site?

“There’s been a lot of confusion around this question, and I think the best way to say it is… when you say people can’t use drugs on the site, it doesn’t mean people don’t use them—it means they use them in the bathroom and they overdose and die,” stated Wilson. 

“If you don’t force people to hide their use, you can assist them to overcome it and act safely.”

He added that a great example of this approach is at their site on Cook and North Park where people come in for coffee and to connect. During the time they are in SOLID’s space, if they feel the need to use drugs, there is a designated corner for them to go to which is supervised. 

“It’s also a chance for a conversation. We are often talking about getting tested,” Wilson continued. 

One person who submitted a question online, and was in favour of the endeavour, asked SOLID how people in the community can support their efforts to make it easier for them to provide care and services to those coming into the area. 

“Just communicating and talking—making sure people know each other,” said Wilson.

“I think one of the biggest pieces we often lose is that everyone is suffering in their own way and everyone’s got family and everyone’s got kids, everyone’s got a life to live.”

“I think when you’re talking to folks, you greet your neighbour, whether it’s someone you can tell is unhoused or someone who lives across the street—it’s just that morning thing of like, ‘hey, how’re you doing?’ that makes a huge difference,” he added. 

The Dowler Place services access hub town hall meeting was rife with interjections, shouting and sharing of personal experiences. 

Despite people’s views, the site will be continuing to roll out services over the next few months and the operators say they will do their best, through on-site security and their staff, to make everyone in the neighbourhood feel safe.