“They feel invisible – these donations make them feel seen,” says Niki Ottosen about the unhoused community helped each year by the Backpack Project, an initiative which collects and distributes aid to help survive winter in Greater Victoria.
“They react with gratitude and a lot of people get emotional because they don't think that people see them,” continues Ottosen, who lives in Colwood. “It lets them know that the community cares about them, that the community isn't ignoring the problem, and isn't ignoring them.”
For 16 years, Ottosen has been sharing this message with Greater Victoria unhoused folks, in the thousands she estimates, all made possible by donations of essential items from the public.
“It's absolutely overwhelming,” she says about the response to the campaign.
For this year's campaign, all 13 Greater Victoria municipalities have collection points, which are open until Dec. 20.
The project is appealing for a list of winter essentials, including tents, tarps, umbrellas, sleeping bags, blankets, hooded sweatshirts, toiletries and non-perishable food items.
Once donated, the items are sorted by Ottosen and a team of volunteers, and then distributed to those in need via outreach programs.
This year the Backpack Project has partnered with an outreach service in Sidney, which means all donations from the Sidney community will stay in the municipality, says Ottosen. She has similar agreements in other municipalities, including Victoria and Sooke.
“But there are not outreach groups in every single municipality. Just like there's not support and housing in every single municipality,” said the founder of the project.
“But if I hear of somebody that needs donations in places without outreach, like Central Saanich, I can get donations to them,” adds Ottosen.
A gardener by trade, Ottosen explains she felt compelled to launch the project after befriending unhoused folks while working in Gorge Park.
“I got to talking to them and making friends with them,” she said. “It helped me understand that they weren't there by choice.”
One moment in particular stands out for her, the death of a 55-year-old man from hypothermia.
“It was quite devastating to me,” said Ottosen, who adds she also has a family member who experienced life on the streets for over 10 years.
“It came to me that as a gardener, I carry around my basic essentials every day. However, I can go home at the end of the day and have a nice warm shower. So I thought, well, I can put together backpacks full of essentials that people may need while they're living outside."
Her work for the Backpack Project has given Ottosen a front-row seat to the plight of Greater Victoria's unhoused community, one she feels is growing worse by the day.
"They're feeling invisible because of the sweeps that are happening in downtown," she said. "They're caging off areas, they're pushing them out of parks ... they're giving them no options," she says. "And a lot of times I hear from people that they feel unwanted, unloved by society, by their community."
Ottosen says the downtown sweeps, which can result in the removal of a person's limited belongings, are leaving people in a "life or death situation."
"So we're here to let them know that people do care, the community does care," says Ottosen. "We're watching very carefully how they're treated and what's happening to them right now and we stand with them."
But ultimately, Ottosen would like to see a world where she can retire the Backpack Project.
"Housing is a protected human right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms," she says. "So, we don't need more shelters, we need housing.
"That would be the dream. I want it to end."
For more information, visit the Backpack Project's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/BackpackProjectVictoriaBC.
