Municipal council candidates shelter overnight on Pandora Avenue

Last week I issued an all-candidate invite to shelter overnight on Pandora Avenue, on the night of October 4. It was meant as a gesture of solidarity of course, but also as an opportunity to witness the reality on the ground firsthand—and let’s be frank, as a test of candidates’ commitment to solve the crisis in a humane way.

Only four fellow candidates replied. Of these, two declined the invitation. One was Lyall Atkinson, whose response was predictably hostile. The other was Jerry Garcia, whom I gained some respect for simply because he did reply with an articulate rationale instead of ignoring the invitation outright.

The other two showed up around 7 PM on the Block for the event. Of these only one would stay overnight: Shona Dion. The other was Bruce McGuigan, whose old bones naturally prevented him from sleeping rough on the streets; on the other hand, he also showed up for the bylaw sweep the following morning.

I have to thank the Crazy Indians Brotherhood for stepping in with logistics, including a canopy tent, coffee, some snacks, and even a generator. In addition, these folks took turns to keep vigil the entire night. This is how far they are willing to go for their brothers and sisters on the street, especially when outsiders make an overture. And that’s why I like working with the Indigenous community on the front lines.

I started the event with an address reading along those lines:

First of all, allow me to acknowledge that we are currently located on the traditional territory of the Lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, nowadays known as the Songhees and Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) Nations. This acknowledgement isn’t purely ceremonial, but central to the object of our gathering here tonight, since Indigenous people are disproportionately represented among the unhoused community.

It isn’t only the Indigenous who are overrepresented among the unhoused; so are every vulnerable or marginalized group, may they be our youth, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community. Our streets have become a dumping ground for people who are being prejudiced against, or whom society deems of no value. We treat our prisoners better than the people reduced to living on the streets. Many convicts even ask to remain in jail rather than be released into the same cycle of homelessness, addiction, and crime which has landed them in jail in the first place.

The alternative, for many, is death. The memorial at the corner with Quadra has been made to honour those who have recently died on our streets, starting with Haley Leeworthy in December 2025. At least 16 members of the unhoused community have died untimely deaths between November 2025 and March 2026. Their names were: Haley Leeworthy, Jonah Brown, Nox MacDougall, Kyle Bell, Fred Leonard, Brianna Brooks, Amanda Visona, Stephanie Heyhoe, Jacob Vance, Cam Bruce, Jay Christie Legatt, Dokk Chipera, Rene Vaillancourt, Thomas Hawkins, Carrie-Anne Wishart and Tia Thomas.

Many more have died since. Too many.

I was not acquainted with any of the aforementioned people. While I used to be homeless in this city, I secured housing in 2022. The last person I have known who died on our streets was Shea Smith, who passed away in December 2024, right after petitioning the BC Supreme Court for judicial review of the latest amendment to the Parks Regulation Bylaw, which closed Irving Park and Vic West Park to sheltering, on the grounds that it violated Article 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the right to life, safety, and security of the person; far from vindicated, his name was instead unceremoniously struck off the petition, since the dead lose standing.

Nobody deserves to be abandoned and left to die displaced to nowhere. I wish I could say I am furious at our elected representatives for subjecting them to this fate. I was furious two years ago. Not anymore. I’m just speechless.

I believe it is the duty of every elected representative not to subject their constituents to any worse than they would tolerate for themselves and their loved ones. In this optic, I have challenged every fellow municipal council candidate to experience those conditions on the ground themselves, and to mingle with community members reduced to sleeping on patches of grass, on the pavement, and on sidewalks. Allow me to emphasize that these folks are our future constituents and most are eligible voters, no less worthy of our attention than any other resident of this city.

I have also encouraged those who can afford to remain a little longer in the morning to observe the subsequent bylaw sweep. These sweeps have been decried by observers as inhumane for depriving the unhoused of what little survival gear they have.

While a mere overnight stay cannot replace actual lived experience of homelessness, I am confident it shall positively influence municipal policy henceforth by providing a better appraisal of the consequences which follow from requiring impossible compliance with vain enforcement.

I invited community members to speak of their own experiences. Of course the consensus was that no gesture would ever be enough for an outsider to get it. While they were surprised that I had been homeless for five years, they were not impressed; some have been on the streets even longer than I have ever been unhoused, and I had known this much beforehand. In fact, while I’d slept in municipal parks such as Beacon Hill Park, I’d never spent a single night on the Block.

One community member started with mocking the mayor’s recent motion to look for daytime gathering space, by pointing out the real need was overnight shelter space for people to sleep, along with storage space. While I wouldn’t dismiss the importance of daytime community space for the unsheltered, he did make an important point. I estimate roughly 75 people sleep rough on Pandora Avenue alone every night, and that is putting it delicately; as I would find out later, it would be more accurate to say most don’t sleep at all because it simply isn’t safe.

Another speaker unexpectedly stressed the importance of voting. According to her, that was one reason the street community lacked a voice. I concur; the bright side of there being so many homeless people in this city is that they wield this much more political influence as a result. But let’s be honest, we’re all so disillusioned by our politicians that many even among advocates don’t bother, or regret it afterwards once their hopes are betrayed, and that was in part the point of last night’s initiative.

A recurring point was the high vacancy rates in supportive housing complexes, due to lack of funding and delays in approving renovations. I can attest to this, since I myself live in a supportive housing complex owned by BC Housing, which is half vacant pending completion of extensive improvements. Perhaps everyone on Pandora Avenue that night could have been housed if not for this shortcoming of the system. Bruce McGuigan in particular couldn’t hide his shock upon learning of this.

One thing I noticed is that these people clean up after themselves, even at night; I swear I’ve seen a few sweep the pavement in front of Our Place. The unhoused are often being blamed for the mess that the cleanup crew has to take on in the morning, but the reality is that there are too few garbage bins for this many people so these are continually overflowing.

I had an emotional reunion during the event, with an elderly client of mine who is now sleeping on a mat at Our Place. Honestly, even I was shocked, because I’d fought like Hell to secure him housing; but as I explained before, housing is only the beginning, and homeless people who secure housing are frequently evicted either because their needs aren’t met or their rights aren’t respected. Yet if I hadn’t come in person to shelter overnight I might never have found out.

Then we set up shelter, more comfortably than most who had either a makeshift one or none at all. Even then, that was rough, and not for the reasons you might think. My first impression was that the place was insufferably bright and loud, far in excess than at any park or shelter. I barely managed to get an hour and a half of sleep, the rest of the time being distracted by the constant noise from traffic, sirens, warning calls, arguments, and the occasional blaring of music. It’s no wonder so many people down there do drugs, they need these to either stay awake around the clock or fall asleep in spite of the constant stimuli.

This is why I must insist that closing municipal parks to sheltering was a huge blunder. It deprived the unhoused of quiet vital space and concentrated them in hot spots where they must remain hypervigilant for their own survival, with the consequences that we know.

Shona and I packed our gear around 6:30 AM, feeling terrible after a poor night’s sleep but still faring better than most people around us. While she had to go, I came back to witness the bylaw sweep after dropping my stuff at home. Afterwards I had exchanges with some folks, a few who even wondered at first whether I was a cop because I stand out too much; while I may walk through the neighbourhood as if I do belong, I’ve been housed for too long to actually do belong anymore, and gaining these people’s trust is all the harder because of it. I’m trying nonetheless, one handshake here, one small gesture there, to remind these people that some of us haven’t forgotten them, and that means the world to some of them who have given up all hope.

I’d like to conclude with an observation. If the municipality is indeed in search of daytime communal space for the unhoused (or overnight shelter space for that matter), why not look into acquiring the commercial units that have been abandoned and fenced off on the 800-block of Pandora Avenue. I would never have had that idea had I not come to listen to these folks, and there’s no way the staff at City Hall would have thought of it either by staring at maps. We’re not going to solve homelessness in this city with data fed into Excel spreadsheets, but with community engagement and boots on the ground.

UPDATE October 6: Follow-up from last night’s debate on food systems at the Fernwood Community Centre. No less than three candidates expressed their regrets not to have been able to attend yet independently suggested repeating the experience after the election (whether or not I actually get elected, dead serious): Bella Lee, Krista Loughton, and Jack Sandor. Of course I would be on board with that, anytime, for any elected official brave enough to try this out.