Letter to Victoria Police and city leaders.

March 3, 2026:

Downtown Victoria has always been my home, specifically the North Park and Harris Green neighborhoods. I grew up here, and because I love it, I’ve chosen to stay here.

Homelessness, or a population of unhoused people, has always existed in Victoria. These people have been a part of my day-to-day life, in my neighborhood, as well as at my jobs. Over nearly a decade as a nurse working in acute care, I have known this population personally. I have treated unhoused people with cellulitis infections, severe burns to hands and face, spinal abscess from IV drug use, diabetic ketoacidosis from poorly managed diabetes, anoxic brain injury from drug overdose, mental illness exacerbated by drug induced psychosis, and the list goes on. I have administered scheduled suboxone and methadone, and bargained with these patients to please not use their IV access for recreational drug use when they go outside, or to at least tell me if they have.

In more recent years working as an ICU nurse, I have cared for countless individuals who have become fatal victims of the toxic drug epidemic. These patients come to us, intubated on scene in respiratory arrest. They stay for a short time in ICU until they are declared brain dead and are subsequently harvested for organ donation. This population is young and otherwise healthy. Sometimes they have family come and say goodbye, oftentimes from out of province. Other times they die alone with only their nurse at their bedside. Every single time it’s an incredible loss.

What has changed in Downtown Victoria as I’ve grown up and lived here is the introduction of a toxic drug supply, accompanied by open air drug use through the 2023 – 2026 decriminalization pilot, and an escalation in violence from this group as their numbers multiply. In middle school and high school, I participated in various volunteer outreach groups serving the downtown area. The concept was the same across these ventures – connect, humanize, share what you’re more fortunate to have.  I have always leaned politically center left, and believe in social programs, housing, and second, third, fourth, fifth chances for everyone. In July 2024, however, when that paramedic was attacked on Pandora street, and the first responders who came to assist were swarmed by a group of 60 people, it all began to crack for me. When society begins to split, and one group is held to a different set of standards and rules than the other, the trust in the overarching system begins to erode. Trust that has been broken is so very difficult to get back.

Living in downtown Victoria, I’m faced daily with scenes where I think to myself – “Wow. If I did that, I’d be arrested.” People are lighting fires in doorways. They’re laying down in the streets. Their pants are down and their bits are exposed. They’re defecating on the sidewalks in broad daylight. I find myself jaywalking to avoid colliding with groups of people yelling at each other around a shopping cart, and think – “Is jay walking illegal? Could I get fined for this?”  As we question our safety in our neighborhood, as we feel forgotten by city leaders, as we feel that we’re working hard to participate in society while there are groups of people outside our doors using drugs and verbally harassing us as we leave for work, the trust erodes further.

I share my history of nursing and outreach work because I think context is incredibly important. I don’t live in a suburb 15 km away; I live right in the heart of this city. I don’t make angry Facebook posts from my living room having never taken a moment to consider both sides, I’ve sat at these peoples’ bedsides and listened and connected. I think it’s important for leaders to listen when those who have been extremely tolerant and understanding and generous in the past, begin to reach their limit.  

I recognize that the solution isn’t simple, it’s multifocal. I don’t have any answers. I urge our leaders to look outward to see what other countries and cities have done to reduce social inequity. To ask for help with this, and to seek long term solutions instead of a quick fix. I think the focus starts with neighbourhood safety with the help of law enforcement on our street, and I believe the solution lies in focusing our efforts upstream and addressing the diverse struggles that the unique individuals in this population face. Instead of finding a blanket approach for the large group, break it apart and assess the various origins these people have come from to end up here.  As a nurse and as a resident of this city, I have seen what downstream interventions with this population produce. Please, let’s instead find a way to change the trajectory with primary prevention approaches, strategically tailored to the subgroups within it. 

Do unhoused people with drug addictions, who have fallen through societies’ cracks, or who suffer from generational trauma or untreated mental illness deserve much better? Yes, they absolutely do. But also, I would say, we do too.”