A few days after reading a Fraser Health Authority Request for a Proposal to implement Health Contact Services for people who use illicit drugs I read that Vancouver and the federal government were close to an agreement that would see the possession of a small quantity (personal use) of illicit drugs not result in prison time.
Central to both the Request for Proposal and the Federal/Vancouver agreement is the use of illicit drugs. The juxtaposition of the two had me shaking my head at how the Rocking Chair Principle has become so pervasive in politics, causing issues and problems to seem intractable.
I found myself thinking about how pervasive seeing what we want to see, rather than what is, has become when I came across a Request for Proposal issued by the Fraser Health Authority to implement Health Contact Services for people who use illicit drugs.
The reason the Request for Proposal brought the human behaviour/ability to see and believe what they want to be the facts or reality was the request stating that between January and November 30th 2020 there were1,548 deaths from overdose compared to 441 deaths from COVID [to November 29] and notes that the number of drug overdose deaths have increased dramatically since March 2020.
Although it seemed the opening of the modular housing on River Road in Abbotsford would endlessly move into the future, it was inevitable that at some point the building would have residents.
With the building open and people moved in perhaps soimeone could fanswer the question: what’s the plan?
I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific. Lily Tomlin
While the actions and behaviours of BC Housing in doing a lot of ‘something’ meet the demand of the public to ‘do something’ about homelessness, that ‘something’ is totally ineffective in addressing homelessness and its related issues. Like a rocking chair, there is lots of motion and effort to go nowhere.
In fact, coming up with actions more pointless than BC Housing’s system that repeatedly places people into housing they fall out of within a few months and/or sends people through treatment with them returning to their addiction a few months after finishing treatment would be most difficult.
