VICTORIA — Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto says residents will see a difference in community safety within six months after announcing $10.35 million in funding for additional police and bylaw officers, temporary housing and the “huge task” of cleaning up parts of the city.
Alto’s announcement comes after the city released a Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan last month on how it will tackle declining social disorder in the city set off by homelessness and addiction.
Alto says council will not raise taxes to fund the measures, but will divert money from existing plans in this year’s budget, with a focus on Victoria’s Pandora Avenue, which is considered the centre of the city’s homeless problem.
She says council had to make “hard choices,” but the “urgency of responding to the city’s social disorder crisis is paramount.”
The mayor says her announcement is not in reaction to recent chaos, including several assaults, that Victoria police said they’ve responded to in the last few weeks, but it is instead an intentional and thoughtful plan they’ve been working on for months.
Victoria city council is expected to ratify the safety and well-being plan tomorrow following its approval in principle last month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2025.
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press
