A B.C. Supreme Court judge has struck down the City of Victoria's bylaws that prevent homeless people from sleeping in city parks.
In a judgment released today, Justice Carol Ross found it is unconstitutional to prevent homeless people from sleeping on public property or erecting shelter to protect themselves when there are not enough shelter beds available for the number who are homeless...
“I'm sleeping in a tent-city tonight,” wrote David Arthur Johnston, one of the defendants challenging the bylaws, in an e-mail. Supporters were to meet at the Victoria court house at noon. “From there I intend to go to where I will set up a tent and invite others to initiate a tent-city.”
So here's one for David! - as in David and Goliath.
I urge people who are interested in this issue to read the study which I cite in that second link above. It has to be one of the best qualitative, in-depth studies on homelessness I've come across in all my years of research. It makes the poignant case, mainly through the voices of people who once built a community and made non-traditional homes for themselves in Toronto, of the importance of allowing tent cities.
Recommend this post
