Portland Hotel Society to offer services for Victoria tent city

The Portland Hotel Society has been hired to manage the tent city behind the courthouse in Victoria, but the Vancouver non-profit says it has no plans to overhaul the way the camp is run.

Andy Bond, PHS's director of housing, says his organization's role will be to identify and provide services in consultation with the tent city's residents, not to tell residents what to do.

"I'm very impressed with the camp internally and how organized it is, and the sense of community and support from a grassroots sort of place," Bond told All Points West host Robyn Burns.

Productive meetings with residents

Some local service providers, such as Rev. Allen Tysick of the Victoria Dandelion Society, expressed concern about an outside organization being brought in.

"Why do we need someone from Vancouver to come over and tell us how it goes here?" Tysick said.

But Bond said, after a productive meeting, camp residents and service providers were receptive to support from PHS once it was made clear they're not there to take control of the camp.

"I think once [they] understood that the philosophy we have is quite similar, and that we're really just trying to support them and provide some best practices, I think that people were quite open to that," Bond said.

Bond said the details of the society's contract with the province are still being finalized and closing the camp is "not an explicit goal" at this time.

The camp has been divisive in Victoria, with area residents calling for a 24-hour police presence in the camp to curb what they describe as lawlessness.

The camp first sprung up in December of last year. The province has tried the shut the camp down with legal action, but a recent Supreme Court ruling allows the camp to remain standing until at least September.

With files from CBC's All Points West.