Category Archives: Issues
Abbotsford’s Housing Leadership Vacuum
Reading Mayor George Peary’s comments regarding homelessness left me wondering if councillors are issued a simple ‘crib sheet’ or whether they are required to memorize the ‘official city response’ to parrot back on questions about homelessness.
Setting aside why it is that the City of Abbotsford has such a limited amount of city owned land, one is left wondering why councillors keep pleading poverty whenever the issue of homelessness is raised.
I have not heard people clamouring for the city to fund homeless initiatives. This is hardly surprising since people are well aware that it is the provincial and federal governments that must provide funding if we are to begin addressing the complex issues of homelessness, addiction, mental illness, poverty etc. Not based strictly on whose responsibility it is, but because of the reality that the senior levels of government are the ones who have sufficient financial resources to fund solutions.
The city’s lack of funds is not the poverty that is, and has been for years, the major impediment to addressing, rather than avoiding, the issues connected to homelessness solutions.
A poverty of leadership from council, not a lack of funds, is the poverty that most interferes with making progress on these issues. It is this lack of leadership that has failed to rally the wide array of resources available in Abbotsford and the province of BC, preventing effective progress to be made on these issues.
The difference between those communities building affordable housing and striving to address the issues that surround and interconnect with homelessness versus the communities pleading poverty or that it is not their responsibility or whatever the excuse de jour is for wringing their hands then sitting on them – is leadership.
There is a desperate need for affordable, supportive, minimal barrier housing in Abbotsford. The Ebenezer home, a 91 bed supportive care home, sits empty. In a city with civic leadership on these issues … anything is possible.
To relieve tension over council
Proper noun is People.
“James helps others.”
I prefer to think of it as I help people, not others.
Last week at a supper several homeless individuals were discussing something to do with homelessness. At one point in the discussion Jerry needed to make a point and called me over.
He gestured and asked “What do you see?” I turned, looked at the cityscape and asked him what he meant. He repeated “What do you see?” Hmmm??? After a few more exchanges it turned out the part of the cityscape he was asking me what I saw was the people.
While my answer lacked elegance it did make clear that when I looked at them I saw a group of individual people, many of whom I knew.
I did not see undeserving bums, cons, thieves, people who choose to be addicts or any other of the popular labels applied to this group.
Jerry seemed happy because whatever the discussion they were having was, the point he was making was the difference between looking at them and applying a label and looking and seeing them as individual people
Do some of them have addictions? Most certainly, however seeing them or thinking of them just as addicts brings with it preconceptions and attitudes that get in the way of the help they need as opposed to the help you think/believe they need or should get.
Mr. X is a person with a problem(s) and that problem happens to be his addiction. Is addiction a behaviour that is unwise? Yes. Does addiction give rise to behaviours that are a royal pain in the ass to deal with? Yes. Is that an excuse not to help this individual? No.
Helping or not helping is not about them it is about us. Our choice to help or not to help reflects the nature of each of us as individuals and of our society.
When you do not want to do something you can always find an excuse to not do it. You apply labels such as addicts or worthless or lazy bums or talk about not deserving.
The society everyone seems to decry results from the decisions and actions of the members of that society. And one of the fundamental foundation stones of that society is how we treat the most vulnerable and weak of our society.
Given the way society and government currently treats “them” it should not surprise anyone how our society behaves and functions.
As you sow, so shall you reap.
They are people and as such we should help – whether we want to or not – because this is how an intelligent, mature species behaves.
Which is why I say I help people not I help others; others carries the suggestion of us versus others when we need to respect that we all are people.
Still I like “I may never be able to sit having a coffee on the sidewalk in the same way again.”
Another one down, a few million Canadians left to illumine.
Criminalizing Homelessness.
The hypocrisy, cynicism, imperiousness and ignorance in the BC Liberal governments announced new homeless policy demonstrates the Liberals apparent lack of either the leadership or ability to deal with the challenges facing the Province of BC.
Minister of Housing and Social Development Rich Coleman acknowledged the punitive nature of this new policy in his statement “…more punitive things were being contemplated…”
I would like Minister Coleman to explain why the Liberal government feels the need to inflict punishment on the homeless. One would have thought the homeless faced enough challenges in simply surviving without the need of punitive government policy.
Coleman said “The question for me is, can we find a piece of legislation where I can save a few more lives?”
Mr. Coleman is the Minister in charge of Housing and Social Development and he needs a piece of punitive new legislation to save lives?
Might I suggest that he build more affordable housing and open more shelter beds? Exactly how is dragging the homeless off to shelters going to work when there are not enough shelter beds for all the homeless on the streets; what is accomplished dragging someone to a full shelter?
Or perhaps the government plans to build “emergency” emergency shelters out in the boondocks to which the police can haul any homeless found on the streets off to? I am sure Mr Coleman and the Liberals can find, or have found, copies of the plans for the Japanese Internment camps from WWII.
Might I further suggest that making the necessary changes within Social Development, to inject an element of reality (safe, healthy housing for $375 a month? In what alternate reality?) into their policies and to focus on helping, not hindering, those in need of assistance, would be a far better use of Mr. Coleman’s time and save far more lives that enacting punitive legislation
I would also point out to Mr. Coleman that his ministry does not exist in a vacuum when it comes to the homeless and those in need of assistance from his ministry.
His colleague the Minister of Health has a significant effect on the homeless through Mental Health and Addictions. Currently Mental Health is significantly underfunded and lacks programs designed to provide services to the homeless community. Compounding these problems is that Mental Health had Addictions added to its responsibilities without any additional funding to provide the array of services needed to stop recycling the addicted and provide the support and services to permit the addicted to find recovery and wellness.
Mr. Coleman would save far more lives by prevailing upon the health minister to provide the funding needed to Mental Health and Addictions, to permit them to meet the Mental Health and Addictions service needs of the homeless and all British Columbians.
Speaking of saving lives, it was the failure by the Liberal government to provide needed services that left the woman who burned to death last winter lacking the services and support to get off the streets. In the final analysis the woman died from government neglect.
“… that there is a safe place for them to spend the night …” (Attorney General Mike) de Jong said, emphasizing the Liberal government’s lack of comprehension of the realities of life for the homeless.
If the ministers and the government had a modicum of understanding they would know that shelters do not equate to safety. There are those on the street who, if forced to a shelter, would make the shelter unsafe for everyone else there. For some a shelter is the most unsafe or unhealthiest place to force them to be.
This proposed law has the potential to cost far more homeless lives than it saves.
Are the police going to return the homeless to the original spot they shanghaied them from? The homeless know their territory and the places within that territory to best survive cold weather. If the police abandon them at a shelter – when the homeless decline to be coerced and walk away from the shelter they will be in an area they do not know significantly reducing their ability to survive.
This piece of punitive legislation will also drive some homeless into hiding, where they run a greater risk of freezing to death. My homeless acquaintances are perfectly capable of surviving the cold – unless disturbed by the police.
Indeed, several homeless friends wanted me to point out to Minister Coleman that in this climate the wet is far more of a threat to their lives than cold is.
During our last provincial election I told a local Liberal candidate that if the province was ever serious about addressing the issues involved with homelessness to give me a call. The fact I have never received that phone call is no great surprise. The ideology of this government and their actions on this issue demonstrate the Liberals are not about actual solutions but about political posturing and the need to be seen doing something.
This proposed policy is about hiding the problem or giving the appearance of addressing homelessness issues; it is not about solutions.
Our current crop of politicians are about playing it safe and giving the impression of addressing issues in order to get re-elected. Which is why politicians are not about solving difficult issues since that would require innovation, change, accepting the need for mistakes to learn and progress and a willingness to risk not getting re-elected in order to pursue solutions.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
And no, it is not a matter of having an overblown sense of myself to tell our local MLA to call me if the Liberals ever want to actually address homelessness and its travelling companions mental health, addictions and poverty.
There are proven best practices to address homelessness, addiction and mental illness and it has been demonstrated that these approaches and practices work. I do not have to be brilliant to be able to know what actions our government needs to take; all I need is an open mind, some research, a willingness and ability to ask questions – and listen to the answers even if they are not what I want to hear, integrity, ethics and honour.
Despite government claims of lack of funds it is not about a lack of money to fund the needed Mental Health and Addictions programs, housing or needed homeless initiatives. It is about priorities.
The Liberals manage to find the funds to pay for Olympic venues, roads, bridges, etc then claim a lack of funding for mental health, addictions and homelessness?
Clearly it is not a matter of funds but of priorities, with the Liberal government’s priority being their ideology and material things over people, ethics, integrity and honour.
Speaking about money matters, homelessness is one of the issues that expose the reality that the belief that the Liberals are good money managers or financially responsible is false.
Study after study has found that it is cheaper to find solutions to homelessness; that governments currently spend more on homelessness (on a per person basis) than it would require be spent to implement solutions that reduce homelessness and help the homeless reclaim their lives.
While BC housing has done a reasonable job of increasing the stock of affordable housing it has failed to address the numbers involved and the need for increased funding.
On the other hand BC housing has wasted and continues wasting funds on programs that do little more than recycle the homeless through the system, generate pretty numbers that give the impression something is being accomplished and contribute substantially to the profitability of those in the poverty industry.
It is not the homeless who need punitive measures taken to punish them for living in a province where the high cost of living makes housing unaffordable for too many – it is the politicians.
ALL the politicians deserve punitive measures for putting ideology, political posturing, re-election, and political power ahead of the wellbeing of people.
The proposed legislation is just more of the same old same old and the bottom line is that doing more of the same proven ineffectual behaviours and actions will only produce more ineffectual results.
As Will Rogers stated “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”
It is time we stopped digging.
The Ugly Economic Reality
The Canadian Payroll Association’s survey found 59 % of Canadians would have trouble making ends meet if their paycheque was delayed by even one week.
The implications of a serious financial crisis inherent in this result are disturbing and raise serious questions about the need for financial and societal changes. If a one week delay causes 59% of Canadians trouble making ends meet, what would the fallout be if they missed a paycheque.
The possibilities for serious economic fallout increase if one considers the two growing subgroups that were left out of the survey on the status of Canadian wage earners.
The first subgroup is those Canadians who have trouble making, or cannot make, ends meet even if their paycheque is on time.
I ran out of gas Thursday evening. Not because, as some wiseacres have suggested, I cannot read a gas gauge but because I had been down to my last 9 cents for a week.
I had been striving to stretch my last tank of gas through to the next morning as my paycheque would be deposited shortly after midnight Friday and I would have funds for more gas.
Instead I had to glide the Cavalier into a visitor spot in front of an apartment building and walk off in search of someone with a gas can and a few litres of gasoline they could spare.
70% of my budget goes to cover shelter costs leaving 30% or about $350.
Subtract the $50 a month it costs to swim, swimming permits me to walk by keeping my back toned and prevent it from crippling me, and you are down to $300. Subtract the $95 a month for insurance and $205 remains.
This works out to $51 a week for gas; an amount that sounds like plenty until you consider the rising cost of gas and the fact that any additional costs come out of these monies.
So far this month I have had to invest $40 for brake pads and another $20 in oil, fuel injector cleaner and gas conditioner. I really should have the gas tank drained, the fuel injectors cleaned and a tune-up. All of which are well beyond my ability to pay for.
Reducing me to $145 or $36 per week for gas; reducing the distance I can travel.
While the brake pads etc represent a one time expense, every month contains the need for some form of one time expense. The fact the Cavalier has needed so many one time expenses has put me behind on “normal” one time expenses eg pain medication.
Yes, I know that the car is a major expense but with no viable transportation alternative I need the car to get to work, to my volunteer/service commitments and to all the other aspects of the community I am involved with.
Also, as the reader can see from the budget numbers, there is no money in my budget for food. The car is necessary to get to free meals and free grocery sources in order to eat.
Thursday’s lack of gas flows mainly from the steadily increasing gas prices. The Cavalier does not get as good mileage as the Duster did, but it has a back seat I can sleep in/on – which is an important consideration in my overall financial reality.
The Abbotsford recreation credit had gotten me a three month pool pass, providing a $50 a month cushion. Running out of gas Thursday is not surprising as this is the month the three month pool pass expired and I was out of pocket the $50 for a pool pass.
I must use gas to get to work and to get food to eat. This leaves me with limited distances I can travel forcing me to reduce, perhaps end, my community involvements. It also leaves me facing the probable need to give up volunteering or doing service work as it renders me unable to get to these commitments; a situation neither healthy for me nor helpful to the organizations or community.
To me, and too many others, it does not matter if our paycheques are on time – our current financial situations are unsustainable; we are in a death spiral down and out onto the streets of Abbotsford and homelessness.
Mathematically it is only a matter of time until I (we) find ourselves in the other subgroup the survey overlooked: those with employment and income insufficient to be able to cover the high cost of shelter in Abbotsford or the Greater Vancouver Area.
In one of the twisted realities of this equation, once I fall out of housing into my car again I will be better off economically. While joining the growing community of Canadians living in their vehicle will result in the loss of the portion of my income I receive to cover shelter costs, I will gain back the shelter costs I pay out of other income and so be 100% better off, doubling my disposable income.
Before the numbers catch up to me and put me onto the streets I am looking to for a suitable van, in good shape and at a ridiculously good price to outfit as a mobile home. Cell phone technology, the portability of current computers and mobile internet make functioning with a van (or even the Cavalier) as one’s home quite viable.
The van would be the preferred solution from the point of view of ability to organize and the comfort of long term liveability. Important considerations in light of my lacking the energy, will or heart to make the long struggle back into what is considered proper housing until my personal economic circumstances change to a point where housing is and will remain viable affordable option.
While this is not warm and fuzzy or pleasant it is Reality and will remain Reality for a growing numbers of Canadians until we, as a country and society, decide it is an unacceptable Reality and make the required changes.
Until such time – Wanted: Van …