16 Jan 2023 Council meeting Safety

264 Nicol Street - Nuisance Property Abatement

Motion

That Council declare 264 Nicol Street a “Nuisance” pursuant to the “Nuisance Abatement and Cost Recover y Bylaw 2019 No. 7250”, and authorize Staff to record and charge for municipal services including police required to abate nuisance activity.

Minutes, page 4

Sources

Agenda itemCity agenda

Staff reportPage 1

Purpose

To inform Council of ongoing activities at 264 Nicol Street which substantially and unreasonably interfere with other persons’ use and enjoyment of property, and require repeated calls for City and police services to abate nuisances.

Staff report, page 1

Staff recommendation

That Council declare 264 Nicol Street a “Nuisance” pursuant to the “Nuisance Abatement and Cost Recovery Bylaw 2019 No. 7250”, and authorize Staff to record and charge for municipal services including police required to abate nuisance activity.

Staff report, page 1

DocumentsStaff report about Community Health & Wellbeing, Safety & Emergency Services

Ian Thorpe Yes

on the floor recommendation on the floor which ... I am ... most definitely going to support I think there are two sort of well definitely related issues here and we seem to be getting we're getting we're getting caught up in in the second issue which is is it relates to how well this now and do site is managed or operated or how effective it is or whether it's needed or not or whether it's ... approved are managed by island health which I understand it's not but to me putting that aside what we're really dealing with is what is the criteria for designation of a nuisance property it doesn't matter what business or activity is happening on the property if there is a substantial identified negative impact to the neighborhood to the community to the residents to the nearby businesses then it can and should be identified as a nuisance property no matter what is happening on that property so when I read that there have been fourteen RCMP complaints ... since I believe April of last year to this property there are reports of drug dealing drug use noise complaints vehicle engines revving assaults intimidation harassment property damage you know to me it secondary what caused those the fact that they have happened and then reported and been the subject of complaints is serious enough to make the ... bylaw department of the city and the RCMP ... think this deserves to be recognized as a nuisance type property and as councillor manly has pointed out it doesn't mean that the city has the right to shut it down unfortunately or not as your view would dictate but it simply means that we are serving notice to the landlord that the disturbances caused by activities on this property are unfair to the citizens and the taxpaying residents of our city and to me we have a civic responsibility to fulfill our bylaw requirements to follow through on thank you

Paul Manly Yes

I support this the concept of of ... peer supported site hi this council has stated that we support the ministerial order that we have asked the provincial government we've got to be hard to step up and help in this situation and we're in a position are where we have to stand by bylaw and I recognize the rights of drug users and peers to organize such self organize you have constitutional rights you have rights but with rights come responsibilities and those rights cannot impinge on the rights of other people and that's where things have crossed the line here and so you know but we don't want to see any more deaths from overdose in this community and the homeless situation in this community is on tenable you know Nanaimo used to be an affordable place to live and so there's a lot of working class people here that are struggling with the cost of housing and with with with homelessness and some of that population ... street entrenched and and addicted and dealing with mental health issues and they need help and we need to see we need to see the humanity in this situation you know we can't arm dehumanize people in this situation and then I see some of that in social media and it's support so what what we need is we need help from senior levels of government we've got serious issues in this community but we have a responsibility as a council to the citizens of this community and the neighbors of this site need the peaceful enjoyment of their property and so there's the you know saying that this is a nuisance property does not mean it means does not mean that it's going to be shut down it means that you have an opportunity to operate this property to get organized property to mitigate the impact on the neighborhood to do some outreach to make sure that if you're gonna continue on this may not be the best place for now and but if you're going to continue on you have to respect neighbourhood and you have to work with your neighbors and you have to work with the community and I know there's supporters of this site in the health community and and in that the social services community and those organizations and those people need to step up to help

Hilary Eastmure Yes

I think that I wholeheartedly support harm reduction and I strongly believe that your run in and peer led services like this can be really really successful and ... are really an important part of this puzzle ... and ... vote tonight is not a referendum on on harm reduction or ... the fact that these services are really important ... it's simply the fact that neighbors are really really suffering because of what's happening on this site and we have a duty as council to help protect the the community and my sincere hope would be that ... this is an opportunity to bring the site into compliance and ... I totally understand that died volunteers on the site are doing their absolute best with not enough resources and not enough support from the people that should be supporting so honestly I don't think it's ... it's the fault of of the volunteers and and you're right now I really think you're you're doing your very very best and I'm sorry that there has been more support for you and I really hope that we can work together to to make this successful ... but unfortunately tonight I I will be supporting this ... nuisance declaration I just really hope that we can get the site back into a safe ... situations of that neighbors are are happy in that it's actually providing the support that that people in our community

Questions and answers

Councillor Erin Hemmens
Yes

asked

Very close to the man to say can you talk to me about what that has done for your operations

Councillor Ben Geselbracht, Councillor Ian Thorpe or Councillor Tyler Brown asked

if anything ...

A guest answered

nothing really so far ... I know they're not to be fully operational until the end of twenty twenty three right now they have no heat no bathroom ... they're not watched as well as they think they are right now and you ... I've had some people actually tell me that they were scared to leave their friends behind because they were being watched properly ... and our members find a very stark and unwelcoming I love but ... they do they're doing the best they can they had opened up in a hurry I believe ... so they're slowly getting all their permits and everything together but hasn't really done anything to us except for because a lot of conversation in the tent

followed up

You haven't noticed any of your members going like this is a disservice that your members are using pardon sorry

Councillor Sheryl Armstrong
Yes

asked

councillor Armstrong thank you I guess mine's not working on your thing so ... couple questions from you talked about ambulance I've heard from paramedics firemen and police that the been walked access from ninety one more than one one occasion can you comment on that they've been what I've heard from the police paramedics and fire the been blocked access into now doing more than one occasion how can you comment on that there was a video showing to a set of people not allowing ambulance access into the site I

A guest answered

have not heard about that I would be free so that wouldn't happen under your under your watch we are under strict instructions to pull the ambulance into that the compound if they need to come into the compound the police usually stop at the door and asked to talk to someone it's usually me I go out I ask them what they would like if they want to look around the tent or anything like that they're usually looking for a missing person on food we've never blocked I have bars I know we've never blocked access thank you

followed up

and can you comment on we've seen videos of people being also dragged out of now do and left on the streets and then then other people calling the ambulance and videos have been sent or not can you comment

A guest answered

to that that should not be happening that clean intellectual be happening it has not happened when I was there

followed up

so you can see our concerns right different people there's different rules are different things and and that's one of my biggest concerns is that there's no proper oversight in the and the public that live around there are paying the price for that so I definitely there's no way that should be happening at all thank you

followed up

councillor Armstrong yeah I move the staff recommendation Sir second

followed up

just just a follow up to Mr Robert have you have received any reports of such as I've heard from a police and fire of both their concerns of having access to Mandy

Councillor Erin Hemmens
Yes

asked

councillor Hemmens thank you chair and through you to Mr Lindsey I believe one of the ... reasons I think we were really excited about the new OP S. opening is that we were hoping it would divert some of this traffic two resource being island health who could provide more wraparound supports are more holistic supports ... I know it's very early days but we do we have any indication from the health authority or from CMHA about the population are serving and whether it's a movement from the Wesley streets population or whether they're actually drawing from that into population

Dale Lindsay

answeredGeneral Manager, Development Services/ Deputy Chief Administrative Officer

thank you through through the chair so the the most recent update I think I have is from last week where ... the director of CMHA indicated to us that approximately fifty people a day are using the sites of the site on Wesley now is completely closed the operation at two fifty Alberta is now the sole it is neat OPS and town ... for comparison it was it was ... stated to me that that's compatible to the numbers that they were seeing at Wesley street ... prior to the Wesley street in camera on it I guess was operating at its peak thank you we're not

Councillor Ben Geselbracht, Councillor Ian Thorpe or Councillor Tyler Brown

asked

today ... no the the the peers and the volunteers Anandiben carrying a heavy weight and appreciate that and ... I just was curious ... what's been the hardest thing to to manage you know there's been there's a lot of complaints and a lot of issues sort of surrounding around the site and you know and understand that people's lives been saved but just curious what's been the hardest ... to manage ... just with the resources you have

A guest answered

The sheer number of people that come there we basically do as much as we can with nothing like ... a lot of the time we're paying for propane to keep the tent out of our own pockets ... we have people collecting cans and Doreen I'm slick members donating askance with the paper for toilet paper and stuff like that sometimes so it's basically just basic needs for everybody that's their heat and running water and we're going to it and stuff like that