Exploring Victoria's Worst Street During Pandemic, Pandora Ave. Victoria, Canada

Описание: What is happening in Victoria British Columbia Canada right now. Canada's most beautiful city.

Currently, between 80 to 100 tents can be seen packed tightly together lining the avenue across from Our Place Society and the Harbour Supervised Consumption Site.

On Pandora Avenue outside Our Place, dozens of tents housing the city’s most vulnerable are bumped up against each other. Bicycles and recycling bins are strewn about. Someone is playing a recorder. Someone else is coughing. It’s impossible for those camped out in the 900 block of Pandora Avenue to keep their distance from other campers — one of the main ways to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Our Place is still serving about 1,000 meals a day and sheltering 175 people at First Metropolitan, My Place, the 919 Pandora drop-in and New Roads in View Royal.

Grant McKenzie, director of communications for Our Place, said he’s very concerned about the vulnerable street population, many members of which don’t understand the necessity to keep physically distanced and have compromised health or immune systems.

McKenzie said he has heard all sort of plans to help the people camping on Pandora Avenue, but nothing’s come through. “We’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. And that’s not a good place to be,” he said.

On Friday, city staff, acting on council’s directions, installed a portable-shower facility on the 900 block of Pandora. A City of Victoria worker helped Our Place open its showers. The worker, dressed in a Hazmat suit, cleaned the shower after every use. That meant 100 people who hadn’t had a shower in a long time were able to get clean.

“In the middle of a pandemic, when [provincial health officer] Dr. Bonnie Henry is telling us every day to wash your hands, if you’re living outside, washing your hands is not as simple as it sounds,” said Helps.

“So city staff has been working hard on those measures and they are in place, but the real solution is to move people indoors.”

The City of Victoria won't be enforcing rules on camping in parks, as part of an effort to let people experiencing homelessness follow instructions to physically distance themselves from others during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the increase of homeless people camping along Pandora Avenue in downtown Victoria, the city is now allowing the homeless to sleep in tents in city parks as a temporary measure.

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