The Martlet

To help avoid another tragic death like Tracey’s: that is B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman’s emotional catalyst for the proposed Assisting to Shelter Legislation (ASL).

Tracey, a 47-year old homeless woman, burned to death last December while trying to stay warm with a candle after refusing to go with a police officer to a shelter.

If passed, the new legislation would give the RCMP the right to forcibly detain the homeless in community shelters or jails during periods of extreme weather. But while this sounds reasonable to many, some critics are suspicious.

They feel ASL, despite Coleman’s framing it as a moral response to the needs of the homeless, is actually a shallow response to B.C.’s housing crisis in the shadow of the 2010 Olympic Games. Yes, ASL can be understood as a short-term solution during the transition to affordable housing, but the legislation’s broad powers are grounds for concern.

One possible consequence is that the act would force the homeless to hide from authorities to avoid detainment, putting them at further risk. It is foreseeable that they would migrate from areas where shelter and medical resources are accessible in order to avoid being picked up by police.

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms states no one can be forcibly detained if they have not committed a crime. The homeless’ right to refuse shelter is crucial for maintaining their constitutional freedoms. However, homelessness denies this group the right to privacy that is taken for granted by those permanently housed. While the average Canadian citizen has the ability to avoid the growing systems of police surveillance, the homeless do not. In effect, the proposed legislation further marginalizes this demographic to further surveillance by the criminal justice system.

This proposed act deals with only one of the many barriers that impede a permanent break from the cycle of poverty and homelessness, while evading long-term solutions. For example, adequate health care is a critical component of this complex problem, but is not addressed by ASL.

And it certainly doesn’t address the biggest need: more permanent housing. The Victoria Cool Aid Society conducted the Homeless Needs Survey in February 2007 and de-mystified the commonly-held belief that homelessness is a choice by revealing that 97 per cent of survey participants desired stable and affordable housing. The ASL overlooks the evidence which supports that homelessness is cyclical and can be mediated by providing affordable housing.

It also ignores other less intrusive options, such as Victoria’s Extreme Weather Protocol (EWP).

This program came into effect in January 2004 and has been largely successful in coordinating shelter providers, faith groups, social service agencies, fire and police to increase the number of emergency shelter beds available during acute winter weather conditions. In 2008/2009, the EWP was invoked 57 times between November and March. But according to the Greater Victoria Extreme Weather Protocol Coordinator’s Report, “at no point during this year, were all of the shelters opened at full capacity.”

So it has to be asked, is the ASL really intended to benefit the next Tracey? Consider the number of mentally ill people found living on the streets, and then consider who would rather sleep in a doorway than a shelter bed during extreme weather conditions. Is putting someone who has done no wrong in jail really for their benefit? It may be just a cosmetic clean-up of the politically insignificant while the world’s television cameras are focused on Vancouver.