I live in Victoria and you would be changing your tune very quickly; It's a fucking crisis here and even the most bleeding heart liberals hate the homeless here.. It's one thing to "respect" or "care" or have compassion, but when you're knee deep in the shit you see the ugly reality through clear lenses.
If the junkies can get ferry fare from the mainland, they jump the boat and come here. If not, you'll see them at Tsawwassen ferry terminal begging for change to get on the ferry. After that it's a quick bus ride downtown.
This city has changed drastically in the last ten years. The government built a brand new building in 2008 to house people called Rock Bay Landing. Cost? $28 million. It's fucking trashed now - it's a low barrier shelter so they tolerate drinking on site, open drug use etc. The entire area around it light industrial and lower income houses - it looks like a war zone. EVERY SINGLE BUSINESS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS FENCED OFF. You'll see junkies ride around on stolen bikes all night stealing whatever they can carry. They sleep it off all day at Rock Bay (or Our Place) and do it again the next night. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Our Place Society downtown is not much better. The sidewalks along Pandora Ave. are littered with garbage, tents and fucked up people passed out....sometimes even in the street. The safe injection site next door is barely used; instead the junkies will just shoot up outside or in the bathrooms at Our Place. The hygiene area downstairs is usually fucking trashed about an hour after opening & the clothing room looks like a dumpster because they change out of dirty clothes and just fucking leave them there. The police are called nearly every single day due to assaults or weapons related calls (usually knives). The staff is only paid $2 above minimum wage so obviously they don't give a flying fuck, they're just there for a paycheque. The worst part is that the "normal" homeless get lumped in with the psycho drug addicts. The elderly, disabled and the working homeless are the ones that truly need the help but all the media portrays is the violent, drug addicted shitstains constantly breaking laws out in the open.
Even if you go far away from the homeless shelter, you'll find evidence of junkie behavior. Obviously because it so warm on the coast a lot of dudes will sleep outside in Beacon Hill park all year. The park is fucking littered with needles, dirty clothing, tents and sleeping bags. The entire stretch of Dallas Road from the Breakwater point to Gonzales beach is completely fucked because of the skidstains. The fire department is constantly down there because these assholes will break trees and try to start fires with still-green branches that were alive an hour ago, causing smoke to waft into the neighborhood houses on the beach.
The entire region is being destroyed but I don't have an answer to solve it. You can't exactly lock them up without due process, shipping them somewhere else just creates a problem in another part of the country. Jail is costing the taxpayers $300/day when we throw one of these shitheads in jail. I don't know, it's a crisis but it's only been the last decade here that it completely turned to shit. My guess is all levels of government will need to come together and it will probably take action & funding from Ottawa to deal with these people.
Source: I volunteer with homeless services and it's a fucking nightmare. I sometimes question why I do this, but I truly do care and want to help the ones THAT WANT TO HELP THEMSELVES.