Victoria’s ‘successful’ Tiny Town shipping container village shuts down

Victoria's 'Tiny Town' shipping container village is shutting down. (CTV News)

After multiple permit extensions, a temporary shipping container village in Victoria, B.C. has closed for good.

This week, contractors began dismantling Caledonia Place, better known as Tiny Town.

“There’s so many reasons to be really, deeply sad that this has come to pass,” said Julian Daly, CEO of Our Place Society, which operated the facility.

He said more than 30 people were living in Tiny Town ahead of the closure. They’ve all moved to other homes.

“The closure of Tiny Town is, without a doubt, the saddest thing that’s happened to me and to our organization, I believe, in my five-and-a-half years as CEO of Our Place,” Daly said.

“It represented the loss of a really successful community housing program: A place where people who had been on the streets for years could find a home, find community, find stability.”

The City of Victoria approved a temporary-use permit for the facility, which opened in the North Park neighbourhood in 2021.

After renewing the permit multiple times, Mayor Marianne Alto said the clock ran out, as provincial regulations limit the permits to six years.

“It was pretty much end-of-life under those regulations,” Alto said.

BC Housing didn’t answer a question from CTV News, which asked whether an exception to the regulations could’ve been made, considering the success of the project.

In a statement, the Crown corporation said the shipping containers are being moved to New Westminster, where they’ll be used for a similar project.

“I would love to have seen it in a different part of the region and I don’t know whether or not BC Housing explored that. That’s obviously not within our purview,” Alto said.

“But certainly there’s a lot of need in the Capital Regional District.”

Tiny Town sits on part of a parking lot next to Royal Athletic Park. For now, Alto said, the space will go back to being used for parking.

BC Housing said the site will be cleared by March 31.