St. Andrew’s United Church wants to help Nanaimo’s vulnerable people. It feeds people, provides gathering space and works with community organizations.
Now the church is being punished for its compassion.
According to the Nanaimo News Bulletin, workers and volunteers at the historic Old City Quarter church are dealing with almost weekly property damage, repeated trespassing, vandalism and fires.
Boards placed over the doors and windows of a vacant house on church property are reportedly being torn off. People enter the building, light fires, cause destruction and sleep inside.
The resulting cleanup and repairs have already cost the congregation “thousands upon thousands of dollars” that it cannot afford.
Now volunteers are leaving because they no longer feel safe.
That is not compassion succeeding.
It is civic order collapsing.
Two Blocks From Police and Fire Services
What makes this story particularly difficult to dismiss is the church’s location.
St. Andrew’s is approximately two blocks from Nanaimo’s RCMP headquarters and a fire hall.
Firefighters can respond after another fire has started. But who is preventing the repeated trespassing, vandalism and destruction in the first place?
Nanaimo taxpayers have repeatedly been told that the city is increasing its public-safety resources.
The city has added RCMP positions. Its complement of Community Safety Officers has grown from 20 to 30. Nanaimo’s policing costs increased from approximately $28.7 million in 2018 to $42.1 million in 2024—an increase of nearly 47 per cent in six years.
Yet a heritage church almost on the doorstep of police and fire services says its property experiences damage nearly every week.
What, exactly, are taxpayers buying?
Property Owners Are Paying Twice
St. Andrew’s is not alone in paying the private cost of public disorder.
Many downtown businesses and property owners now hire private security companies to patrol and protect their buildings. That expense comes on top of the municipal taxes they already pay for RCMP services, Community Safety Officers and other public-safety programs.
They are effectively paying twice.
First, they pay taxes for public protection. Then they hire private security because the public system is not providing enough protection to keep their property, employees and customers safe.
Even that does not end the damage.
The church still faces fires and vandalism. Businesses still deal with broken windows, threatening behaviour, theft, discarded drug paraphernalia and damaged doorways. Employees and volunteers still question whether it is safe to come downtown.
More RCMP positions, more Community Safety Officers and more private security have not restored order.
Clearly, what we are doing is not working.
Compassion Cannot Mean Surrender
St. Andrew’s event coordinator Angie Jones described the dilemma with remarkable balance.
Vulnerable people desperately need support, she said, but organizations such as the church cannot continue absorbing repeated fires, property destruction and thousands of dollars in repair costs without meaningful help.
That is the reasonable middle ground too often missing from Nanaimo’s public discussion.
Recognizing that someone is vulnerable does not require pretending destructive behaviour is harmless.
Compassion for a person struggling with addiction, mental illness or homelessness does not require abandoning the church worker, shopkeeper, senior, employee or volunteer who feels threatened.
One group’s hardship does not erase another group’s rights.
People have a right to be treated with dignity. Property owners also have a right to expect that laws against trespassing, vandalism and arson will be enforced.
When government refuses to hold those two truths together, compassionate organizations end up carrying costs that properly belong to the entire community.
The Cost Is Being Quietly Downloaded
The city may not list recurring vandalism as a formal tax increase, but someone still pays.
- The church pays for repairs.
- Businesses pay for private security.
- Donors pay through additional fundraising appeals.
- Insurance policyholders pay through deductibles and higher premiums.
- Volunteers pay by surrendering their sense of safety.
- Customers pay when security and repair costs are built into prices.
- Taxpayers pay when police and firefighters repeatedly return to the same locations.
Eventually, businesses, services and community organizations may close or leave.
St. Andrew’s is reportedly considering launching a GoFundMe simply to help cover its repair costs. Think about what that means.
Taxpayers fund the RCMP, fire department, Community Safety Officers and other public-safety initiatives. Downtown property owners hire private security on top of that. Then the victims are asked to pass the hat to repair the continuing destruction.
That is not a sustainable public-safety strategy.
It is cost-shifting disguised as compassion.
Where Is the Plan?
This was not an unforeseeable, one-time incident. The church says people have repeatedly removed the boards securing the vacant house and entered it. Small fires have reportedly been lit inside before.
Authorities should answer some straightforward questions:
- How many times have police and firefighters attended this property?
- Were any suspects identified, arrested or charged?
- Were regular patrols or preventive measures established?
- Have Community Safety Officers been assigned to monitor the immediate area?
- What direct assistance was offered to the church?
- Why could people repeatedly enter a known fire hazard two blocks from police and fire facilities?
- How much are downtown businesses spending on private security?
- How many businesses, employees and volunteers have already left because they no longer feel safe?
- What measurable results have taxpayers received from the additional public-safety spending?
The vacant house may ultimately have to be demolished. That could remove this particular target, but it would not solve the larger problem.
Disorder does not disappear when one building comes down. It simply moves to the next doorway, alley, church or business.
Who Is Protecting the Helpers?
St. Andrew’s was built in 1893. It has survived enormous social and economic changes while continuing to serve Nanaimo.
It should not be driven to the brink because governments cannot maintain basic order around it.
The church is trying to protect vulnerable people.
Who is protecting the church?
Hiring more officers and spending more money are not measures of success. Results are the measure.
If volunteers remain afraid, businesses must employ their own security and property destruction continues almost within sight of RCMP headquarters, taxpayers should not be told that another program, another position or another budget increase represents progress.
Compassion without boundaries becomes abandonment—abandonment of workers, volunteers, property owners and the very organizations trying hardest to help.
If Nanaimo cannot protect a charitable church located two blocks from its police headquarters and fire hall, taxpayers are entitled to ask one blunt question:
Where in downtown Nanaimo can anyone reasonably expect to feel safe?
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you for your input. Your comment will appear once reviewed.