“Invest in land — The good lord keeps making people, but he don’t make no more land.”

That was the advice of Joseph J. Tallal, Jr a renowned expert in real estate investments. It came to mind as I was reading about the $4.5 million Fraser Health was going to spend knocking down MSA Hospital after the move to the new Hospital.

Their plans for redevelopment of the old hospital sounded well thought out but … what is the need to rush to destruction? Land does not go bad and as Mr. Tallal noted no more land is being made so delaying redevelopment will not result in any loss of value.

Abbotsford is faced by an arduous task – meeting the challenge of the growing numbers of homeless on our streets, as if the abundant numbers of those currently homeless was not challenge enough.

The reality is that other than some “on paper progress” the City continues its failure to provide leadership on this issue.

We do not have the luxury of continuing the behaviours of our current city council. We need facilities and action NOW.

More importantly, if we commit ourselves to the goal of ending homelessness in Abbotsford in ten years, there is no purpose served in spending money constructing buildings that are needed for a relatively short number of years. Also, the maximum space needed, the maximum number of homeless to be worked with will occur in the first years. As we progress to our goal of ending homelessness, as we reduce the number of homeless on our streets, we will need less space, less staff and smaller facilities.

The old hospital is a community asset, a facility whose purpose is to meet a community need. While Abbotsford has outgrown the old hospital’s capacity to serve as a hospital, Abbotsford, as a community, still has a need for the facility to meet a different, but no less meaningful need of the community.

As a community we cannot afford to stand around and allow this rush to destruction of a facility that our community has an urgent need for.

I am not advocating that Fraser Health never redevelop the property. Indeed I would support a fixed period (3 – 4 years) being set for the building to serve to help the community in accomplishing its goal of ending homelessness after which Fraser Health would proceed with redevelopment.

City staff’s report and recommendations on the 18 applications for licensing as a recovery home has just been finished. Just 18 out of how many? 40 to 50 plus? When the City begins to act and close down unlicensed recovery houses we face a flood of people having nowhere to go but onto the streets.

Our streets are full of homeless whose numbers grow daily; we face a flood of homeless from closing unlicensed recovery houses; we need someplace to provide shelter for these people; we need to be able to feed these people, provide hygiene and laundry; we need office space to deal with the challenges of helping the homeless find themselves and homes; we need leadership and to start acting in a responsible manner.

We need to remind Fraser Health that Mental Health and Addictions is part of their turf. That Fraser Health is charged with responsibility for meeting the health needs of the Fraser Health Region including Abbotsford; they are responsible for dealing with Mental Health and Addictions issues affecting Abbotsford.

Fraser Health needs to understand and acknowledge that meeting their duty of care for mental health and addictions requires dealing with the homeless suffering mental illness and/or addiction; that, whether they like it or not, in dealing with the issue of mental health and addiction afflicting the homeless they are part of addressing the issue of homelessness.

It is reasonable to request Fraser Health meet, at least in part, its duty of care to the homeless and homelessness by making MSA Hospital available for a limited period of time to serve on the frontlines of ending homelessness in Abbotsford.

With the numbers of homeless growing and with the potential tsunami of homeless from the closing of unregistered recovery homes the City does not have the luxury to continue business as usual on the homelessness front.

We need leadership. We must begin to get our act together and take action. We need the use of MSA Hospital.

Disagree? Let us hear a plan, another workable suggested course of action, let us debate our course of action – then act.