One of Victoria鈥檚 largest supportive housing providers and a coalition of 20 more across B.C. are calling for an immediate ban on weapons in supportive housing buildings province-wide, along with changes to the Residential Tenancy Act, following a suspected homicide at a supportive housing unit.

On April 26, a young father was found dead in a Pacifica Housing's Waterview Supportive Housing building unit on Gorge Road East. The death is now ruled as a "suspected homicide" and is being investigated by the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit.

"I want to be clear, I really don't want to be here today," said Carolina Ibarra, CEO of Pacifica Housing, at a media conference. "This is not where I wanted us to be."

Ibarra, joined by the BC Coalition for Safe and Sustainable Supportive Housing representatives, said the Residential Tenancy Act limits housing providers and law enforcement's ability to remove weapons or unwanted visitors from supportive housing projects until it's too late.

In an example she gave, someone had overdosed in a unit of the Waterview complex. When staff responded, they found multiple non-residents in the room, along with a gun on the bed. The situation presented a somewhat legal grey area as an unstored firearm is illegal, but was discovered in a private residence.

"We had been struggling to prohibit or enforce the prohibition of the firearm, so we gathered our evidence, we went to the Residential Tenancy [Branch], and we lost," said Ibarra. "The comment the arbitrator made in the response was that while it might be disturbing to find the presence of a firearm, it is not significant or severe enough to waive the Residential Tenancy Act's notification period."

Micheal Vonn, CEO of the PHS Community Services Society, explained how, under recent changes to the act, which the housing providers argued aren't working, supportive housing providers are technically treated as any other landlord. 

"Our relationship with the people that we serve is not that of merely landlord and tenant; the relationship that we have requires extensive programming," argued Vonn. "And critically, it involves staff in our buildings. All of our buildings are also workplaces. And if you will recall, the people that we serve are at infinitely greater risk of personal violence through crime than other citizens that we share our society with. We have that obligation to keep them safe. We also have the obligation to keep our staff safe."

"What other employer has to go to the Residential Tenancy Branch when there are weapons of violence in their workplaces to wait weeks, months, or maybe never to get that threat removed?"

Of the approximately 270 units Pacifica Housing operates in Victoria, Ibarra says only about a dozen are serious problems. The serious safety risk to staff, other residents, and the surrounding community prompted the call for action to the Ministry of Housing.

"We would like to have supportive housing removed from the Residential Tenancy Act and work with the coalition to be able to create an appropriate legislative framework that supports the realities of the work while protecting our residents," said Ibarra.