Initial actions will focus on Pandora, Princess, and the downtown core.
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Mayor Marianne Alto said residents are frustrated with the rising degree of street disorder and the consequences from it that affect the daily lives.
Mayor Alto added that though responsibility for the services that address poverty, homelessness, addictions and health lie primarily with the provincial government, Victorians expect their city government to respond to these crises.
The CSWB plan describes a system-wide shift to address community safety with "upstream" interventions and "downstream" enforcement, allocating resources to change how the city provides its own services and how it collaborates with other governments, community service providers and residents.
Council has directed the city manager to:
- Hire 12 additional bylaw staff, with a focus on deployment to Pandora, Princess, and downtown. Cost: Less than $1.9-million;
- Request deployment of nine additional police officers to Pandora, Princess, and downtown, with at least two of those officers dedicated to working full time in partnership with bylaw. Cost: Less that $1.35-million;
- Match CSTEP funding to VicPD at a cost of $220,000;
- Increase public works attention to Pandora, Princess and the downtown. Cost: Less than $390,000;
- Investigate purchase and staffing of a vehicle to assess and transport unhoused persons from Pandora, Princess and the downtown. Cost: $620,000;
- Begin to rehabilitate and rebuild public infrastructure on the 900-block of Pandora Avenue (less than $3.75M) and Princess Avenue (less than $1.1M);
- Resource community service providers to fill unused spaces at existing shelters: Less than $250,000;
- Increase funding for more relocation services provided by non-profit service providers. Cost: Less than $624,000;
- Investigate and establish new short term shelter options, including up to two managed, secure, short term emergency shelter spaces. Cost: Less than $3.1M;
- Collaborate with Princess Street establishments to eliminate sheltering, and sustain its absence;
- Enhance city emergency weather crisis response. Cost: Less than $308,000.
Council has also directed the city manager to confirm that $10.35M will be allocated for these purposes from reallocations of funds diverted from:
- $700,000 from planned contributions to the housing reserve for 2025 and 2026;
- $1.5M from funds allocated for Royal Athletic Park;
- $1.65M from the city’s current housing reserve;
- $2.5M from funds allocated for Centennial Square, and;
- $4M from the Financial Stability Reserve.
Almost 80% of bylaw staff time is currently dedicated to managing sheltering in public spaces. Bylaw costs related to sheltering and public disorder cost the City over $3.5 million in 2024.