Another Island community has been forced to remove bus shelters to prevent homeless camping, drug use and vandalism.
And nobody at the Cowichan Valley Regional District is happy about their decision, which will negatively impact people who depend on public transit.
At a meeting last week the District voted to take down shelters at Village Green Mall and Cowichan Secondary School because they have become homeless camping and drug use locations. It was discussed at length in late March at a previous District board meeting.
Jim Wakeham, the district’s transit manager, says other Island communities have had to make similar moves, including Victoria and Nanaimo. He says the issues at the two stops have been ongoing for nine months.
“There [are] definitely safety concerns at times, and so we need to be really taking that in stride,” he told the board on March 27. “It’s not just a cleanliness issue, it’s about the safety.”
Duncan mayor Michelle Staples is on the board, she says they need to be pushing the province and federal governments to provide housing and treatment.
“How many letters do we write? How many meetings do we have to have, before this is invested in properly, in all of our communities?” she said. “There’s so many people suffering, and there’s just not enough being done… incremental changes are being made, but this needs to be addressed as the crisis that it is.”
Other directors agreed and said they didn’t like taking down the shelters, but all they can do right now to protect public safety while waiting on senior governments to act.
