For my mental health we left Kamloops and the conference on community supported housing for the homeless and people with addictions, without attending the final session. The person I was travelling with felt that letting me sit through the panel: “Kamloops in Action: How to eradicate homelessness in Kamloops” would severely depress me. I am not sure if he was more worried about my mental state or facing the long drive back to Abbotsford with a severely depressed travelling companion. He was right though, listening to all the progress and positive things going on in Kamloops would have been depressing for anyone in the audience facing a return to the current status quo in Abbotsford.

As conferences are, this one was opened on Wednesday by a local politician, the mayor of Kamloops Terry Lake. As I expected, based on experience with conferences on housing in Abbotsford, Kamloop’s Mayor Terry Lake started out by laying out the tax and cash realities of municipal, provincial and federal governments. But from there … these fiscal realities were not used as an excuse for doing nothing nor for pointing the finger and stating “it was the responsibility of more senior levels of government to address these issues”. Rather than see fiscal reality as an excuse to do nothing, Mayor Lake and his council see fiscal reality as requiring them to form partnerships with provincial and federal governments in order to obtain the needed funds.

This attitude no doubt explains why it is that the City of Kamloops with a population of 80,376 (2006 census) has received millions of $dollars$ in provincial and federal funding; has completed housing projects, has housing projects under way, has a ground-breaking for a new project about to take place, has a new project to preserve affordable housing stock sitting there awaiting the City facilitating the right partnerships; why BC Housing is anxious to work more with and provide more funding to Kamloops; Kamloops is attracting so much money for affordable housing projects.

Such clear evidence that the only reason that Abbotsford, with its population of 123,864 versus Kamloops 80,376 (2006 census) does not have millions of $dollars$ to invest in affordable housing projects is that Abbotsford’s elected officials are to lazy or to bumbling to get off their keisters and perform the ridiculously simple task required to get those millions of $dollars$ of funding – ask – is depressing.

Undoubtedly Abbotsford City Hall and Council will claim “its not that simple”. The reality is that yes, it is pretty much that simple. It is really no more difficult for a municipality to secure funding for homeless housing initiatives than it is for a municipality to secure funding for capital projects undertaken by the municipality. I admit that Abbotsford City Council has demonstrated itself to be challenged in the area of capital grants/funding, but the successes of Langley, Chilliwack, Kamloops etc. demonstrate that this is quite doable. Kamloops demonstrates funding is not a function of size but of the fight, the leadership in the City Council.

Throughout the conference attendees were going up to Kamloop’s city councillors (yes there were Kamloop’s city councillors who attended the entire conference) and seeking their advice about getting housing projects up and funded. Boggles the mind does it not, people seeking city councils advice on a matter because of council’s demonstrated ability on any matter? Kamloops City Council is not arguing about the extent of homelessness, researching, awaiting a report from planning or social advisory committees reports. Kamloops City Council is working on “Kamloops in Action: How to eradicate homelessness in Kamloops”.

Sitting through the panel session, listening to Kamloops city council on eliminating homelessness, listening to the litany of all that had been accomplished, was being planned and would be accomplished in Kamloop’s would have been very, very depressing. To know that the only true reason progress is NOT occurring in Abbotsford, but is being made in communities all around us and around the province, is a lack of leadership and will. To know that with leadership we could have BC Housing fund the purchase and renovation of the housing stock in the Fraser Valley Inn, a start.

At least the next time city council begins to claim there is nothing they can do, we have merely to demand: “If Kamloop’s and others can accomplish all this, why can you accomplish nothing but excuses? Some leadership please.”