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….