Just got back home!

A report released late last year showed that continuing to enforce #Victoria’s daytime sheltering ban would cost $4.7 million, due mostly to increased labour for bylaw and police officers.

#VicPD is currently seeking an $80-million annual budget—up $7 million from 2024—to finance new hires.

"Why are we the ones who have our roofs torn off every day?" asked a displaced resident during the bylaw sweep.

It’s a question that cuts to the core of class divide. In a city with a housing market increasingly reserved for the wealthy, those with nothing are criminalized as they try to survive.

“A ceasefire is simply the first step,” said Anas from #Palestine at the 67th march in #Victoria.

“Ceasefire, then lift the siege, then end the occupation, then free Palestine. As we said from week one, justice is the bare minimum.”

In 2019, Shea cofounded The Homeless Idea podcast.

Gaarth Mullen, host of @crackdownpod.bsky.social, said Shea’s legacy will live on.

“Where once his strong voice crackled, we now hear radio silence. But the revolutionary never dies b/c we carry on his work. See you on the other side, brother.”

In his final days, Shea called for housed people to stand with those who are unhoused.

“We need housed people out here with us fighting side by side with us,” he said, adding it makes bylaw “a lot less likely to do the things that they’ve been doing to us.”

#endhomelessness

Shea was a lead plaintiff in a court case against Victoria’s policies targeting unhoused people. He died from an overdose in December.

Shea’s death could have been avoided were it not for bylaw’s intensifying displacement efforts, said harm reduction scholar Bernie Pauly.

#bcpoli

You can watch the entirety of @backpackproject.bsky.social founder Niki Ottosen’s gripping speech at this link starting at 53:25:

pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx...