'It’s been a challenging year': Relief from neighbours as former Travelodge returns to ownership group soon
BC Housing is keeping the promise it made to the Burnside Gorge Community Association. As of Dec. 31, everyone housed in the former Travelodge hotel on Gorge Road will have been relocated into new housing.
In April 2020, BC Housing began leasing the Travelodge to house people who had been living in tents in parks around Victoria.
For Burnside Gorge residents like Sue McMurter, it’s been a long year and half.
“It just had an incredibly disruptive impact on the neighbourhood,” said McMurter.
Lesley Valour decided to pick up and move away from the neighbourhood she loves altogether due to safety concerns.
“I’ve moved to another part of the city,” she said. “I’m still a City of Victoria resident, but I moved because it just became too dangerous and unsafe.”
The neighbourhood saw a sharp increase in crime and drug use, with dirty needles found around the area. There were fires at the former hotel and a general uneasy feeling for neighbourhood residents.
“It’s been a challenging year, particularly for those who live close to the Travelodge,” said Elizabeth Cull, chair of the Burnside Gorge Community Association.
At one point, there were 130 people living at the former hotel. As of Wednesday, there were only nine, and by the end of the month it will be empty.
“We have found permanent, long-term housing for the vast majority of those folks,” said Don McTavish, director of housing and shelters at Victoria Cool Aid Society.
The society has been running the operation since shortly after BC Housing took the property over. He admits it hasn’t been a smooth ride at times, and it has come with its share of neighbourhood disruptions.
He says despite the issues, BC Housing leased the former hotel to give those living on the streets stability. That was accomplished and has led to many successes.
“For the vast majority – I’m guessing 80 per cent or 75 per cent – we have found longer-term supportive housing, which is, I think, a huge success,” said McTavish.
He says some people found housing on their own. Others reconnected with family and moved east, while others have entered addiction treatment programs and are getting their lives back on track.
The Burnside Gorge Community Association says it’s glad that BC Housing is keeping up with its end of the deal and not renewing the lease on the property. The chair of the organization says its community is still carrying the lion’s share of the city’s supportive housing.
“That’s housing for people who need other supports besides just a roof over their head, and that often comes with all kinds of other issues,” said Cull. “Problems spill over into the neighbourhood.”
She would like to see supportive housing more evenly distributed across the city.
“People aren’t really that hard to house as they are hard on housing,” said McTavish.
Come Jan. 1, Cool Aid will turn the building back over to BC Housing and the building’s ownership group. It will then be remediated.
What its future will be is currently unknown. Calls and emails to the ownership group went unanswered.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
BREAKING Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
What do weight loss drugs mean for a diet industry built on eating less and exercising more?
Recent injected drugs like Wegovy and its predecessor, the diabetes medication Ozempic, are reshaping the health and fitness industries.
2 military horses that broke free and ran loose across London are in serious condition
Two military horses that bolted and ran miles through the streets of London after being spooked by construction noise and tossing their riders were in a serious condition and required operations, a British government official said Thursday.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.