Victoria man is fighting inequality in the city after three years of looking for homes

Riley Johnson says he struggled with homelessness and complex mental health issues for three years. He used every resource he could find to get support.

But after years of searching for help In his hometown of Victoria, B.C., Johnson, 31, feels no closer to stability than when he first found himself homeless after a job loss and breakup in 2021.

“It seems like once you don’t have housing, there’s nothing anyone can do for you,” said Johnson, who faces long waiting lists and few answers when he seeks help from government and charities in the city.

Unable to afford housing while earning minimum wage and crippled by years of waiting to access long-term support, Johnson, who has borderline personality disorder, says the situation has escalated his problems with depression and suicidal thoughts, causing he sometimes ends up in the emergency room. .

Mental health and housing industry insiders say he is one of many people being let down by systems overwhelmed by demand from those priced out of the housing market and seeking mental health care.

BC NDP Leader David Eby and BC Conservative Leader John Rustad have made duel proposals for extensive involuntary care as a solution to help people with psychological problems and addictions who have been arrested by the police off the streets.

“People have been going down the survival circuit in an attempt to get help, but there isn’t enough and it isn’t accessible in a timely manner,” said Chris Forester, executive director of Island Community Mental Health.

“A lot of that help starts with just being safe in your own home and then being connected to real wrap-around support, and there’s not enough of both that can provide people with enough consistent, ongoing support to change the way they live. .”

BC Housing’s list of people in BC waiting for subsidized housing has more than 34,000 applicants, according to the most recent data from June. Supportive housing, which provides additional support for people struggling with mental health and addictions, has more than 8,000 waiting applicants.

BC Housing was unable to provide the CBC with an average wait time for these lists because they are not linear and applicants are prioritized based on need. A spokesperson further notes that people can qualify for both types of housing and that not everyone on the registers lives unsheltered.

‘It’s just hopeless’

Johnson lived with his partner in Vancouver, where he worked in restaurants and bakeries and as a freelance make-up artist for films. But in 2021, when he lost his job and his relationship ended, he found himself unable to afford any of the rental ads he saw.

He moved back to his hometown of Victoria, where his mother still lived. He was able to stay in his mother’s dining room, a temporary shelter that saved him from having to sleep on the street.

That workaround has become Johnson’s reality over the past three years. During that time, with housing insecurity taking a serious toll on his mental health, he sought help at the Royal Jubilee Hospital’s psychiatric emergency room about five to six times over the past three years.

Each time he says he was fired within a day. Johnson believes that staff were dismissive of his mental health issues and that the danger he poses to himself due to the instability of his housing is a major factor in his mental health.

He said they gave him information sheets with market housing and hotel options that are more than he can afford.

“It’s just hopeless because you talk to these people and they straight up say, ‘I know it’s my job to help you, but there’s really just nothing there,’” Johnson said.

“But then the broader public thinks that the mentally ill and the poor are so spoiled here. It’s like there’s such a disconnect.”

Island Health has said physicians and care teams work together to decide when to discharge patients and that the information sheets, like the one Johnson received, are prepared by care teams. At the CBC’s request, they have not provided an updated copy of these sheets.

Johnson is currently waiting for BC Housing’s list of subsidized housing, which he must check in every six months to keep his application active.

Demand exceeds services

Heidi Hartman, BC Housing’s deputy vice-president for supportive housing and homelessness, said the province has built or started construction on 40,000 new homes since 2017, but demand continues to outpace the number of available units.

According to Jonny Morris, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association in B.C., the situation is similar to the province’s care for complex mental health issues. He says there are “wastelands of care” across the province for people without a GP, especially those in the province. rural and racialized communities.

“So much [complex mental health conditions] are absolutely treatable, like completely treatable. It’s just that we have a disconnect between the person and the treatment, whether it’s bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression or anxiety,” he said. “The real opportunity before us is how we can close the gap between treatments and people. “

CBC host Gregor Craigie asked candidates in the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding in a debate Thursday morning how they would reduce long wait times for housing and mental health care.

BC Green Party leader Sonia Fursetenau called for psychologists and counselors to be included in the provincial health care plan, while BC Conservative candidate Tim Thielmann said his party would take some of the demand out of the health care system by providing care through private services to finance. providers.

Incumbent NDP Leader Grace Lore said she would not support any privatization of the health care system and pointed to her party’s track record on investments in non-market housing and crisis response teams.

The Canadian Mental Health Association of BC released 31 recommendations ahead of the election for significant changes to improve mental health care in the province, which Morris said have been received and reviewed by all parties.

The recommendations include making counseling and psychotherapy universally accessible and publicly funded, scaling up subsidized housing for people on low and extremely low incomes, revising the Mental Health Act, improving the experience of inpatient care, and requiring health authorities to spend money on mental health care at least 10 percent of their budget annually.

Meanwhile, Johnson recently started a new job as a tailor and hopes to start selling hair care products – and that this may soon be enough to help him take steps towards stability.

However, he has lost hope that support for his mental health and housing issues will come his way.

“If you can’t get help in British Columbia’s capital, where can you get help?” he said. “For example, it’s Teslas and tent cities. It’s crazy.”