Category Archives: Homeless

Back on the merry-go-round of pointless behaviour.

On June 1, 2006 the forces of the city government descended upon “Compassion Park” in force to serve notice to the homeless camping there that the pointless game of tag, previously waged by the City, was about to begin again in 48 hours. Once again the taxpayers dollars are to be wasted in chasing the homeless around the city, as opposed to investing these funds in actually addressing the issues and causes of homelessness, the city government choosing to waste dollars in behaviour that accomplishes nothing. They might just as well build a bonfire in front of City Hall and shovel a pile of taxpayer dollars into it. As a demonstration of their commitment to wasting the taxpayers hard earned dollars, they dispatched a department manager, bylaw officers and police officers to deliver this notice. I am sure they could come up with some excuse for this wasteful overkill, but the fact is that all that was needed to deliver the notice was 1 person. Makes me wonder in just how many other ways the city is squandering money.

But then anyone who talks to management in that Tower of Babel called City Hall soon realizes that the people responsible for planning, budgeting and spending their money have no real sense of economic reality. This is probably why they are so over-paid, as they require exorbitant salaries to offset their total lack of economic sense. I had the displeasure of witnessing this total lack of any basic understanding of reality in a discussion with one of the city’s department managers. He stated that there was no money available to act as seed money for undertaking the complex task of beginning to deal with homelessness. When asked if some of the money that would be saved by not pointlessly chasing the homeless around the city could not be used in order to actually accomplish something, it was stated that there would be no such savings. I cannot remember all of the convoluted argument the minions of the city used, but apparently a dollar saved by not being stupid is not a dollar available to be spent intelligently.

The police spend countless hours chasing, harassing and generally dealing with the homeless. All these hours add up into hundreds of thousands (a million+?) of dollars in salary. So much so that the police needed millions of more dollars (driving the tax increases into the stratosphere) in order to meet other policing needs in the community. This argument also applies to the all the salary dollars of city employees engaged in the fruitless pursuit of the homeless, more thousands or hundreds of thousand dollars. From my business/economic point of view, if you do not spend all those dollars in a wasteful pursuit of the homeless, then you have saved those dollars. True, the city may decide that the money should be spent in other ways rather than in reducing the city taxes, but they owe it to the taxpayers to clearly state what they will be spending this money on so that the taxpayers can evaluate this spending – otherwise what is the point of bothering with a budget? So it would appear to me that if the city adopted a sensible approach to the issues of homelessness and poverty, stopped wasting all those taxpayer dollars, there would be several hundred thousands of dollars available every year to help fund facilities and services to address these issues. Not to mention that a portion of these savings would also provide the ability to either address other pressing needs or some tax relief.

No, I do not think that the city should or could be solely responsible for providing funding to address these types of social problems. However, using money saved by adopting intelligent behaviour as seed money to provide leadership in this crucial area seems sensible to me, if not to the politicians and bureaucrats of City Hall. Of course sensible action on the question of the homeless seems to be somewhat lacking at this time.

Listen

One of the downsides that does not occur to you as one seeks improved mental hygiene is the side effect of improved listening. I can hear all those voices as people shout: ‘What, I am already a great listener!’ as they close their eyes, ears and minds. Just as so many citizens of Abbotsford chose to ignore those, who for years had tried to draw their attention to homeless issues that needed to be addressed while the problem was relatively small and thus more manageable. This willful ignorance continued until homelessness grew to a size where it could no longer be ignored, a size where the problem was much larger and a great deal more complex. This is so often the case when we do not hear what is said even as we claim to be listening. With things we do not want to hear, see, think about or that disagree with how we believe the world is, our minds shut down so that what is said goes in one ear and out the other – leaving no trace or impression on the mind. How many citizens looking at “Compassion Park” see only what they want to see, a camp of homeless people. The choose not to hear, see or think about the reality that this is the tiniest tip, a small visible indication of a much larger and complex national issue. They spend all their time screaming “Not in My Backyard” to avoid the need to listen to, and then think about, the real and pressing larger issues. Apparently people prefer ignoring problems by not listening, then complaining about the Fallout because it is much easier not to listen – at least in the short run. In this manner they avoid actually having to think about what was said and the issues connected to what was said.

Take as an example the Conservative parties promise to increase prison sentences, crack down on (what they consider to be) crime, re-criminalize things (such as marijuana) they do not approve of, etc. Voters liked what they heard, but did they really listen? Listening requires concentration and critical thinking. We can all agree that probation for a drunk driver who kills or maims someone is unacceptable and that there are other specific situations/areas of the law and sentencing that need attention. BUT if you listen to and think about what the Conservative party was saying, you soon realize the Ed Fast was making a vast understatement when he stated the government would not close any of Abbotsford’s prisons because they would be needed to house ALL the prisoners after the Conservatives change the criminal code to their liking, matching it to their beliefs. If you think about it, with all the new people the Conservatives want to throw in prison and the longer (in some cases much, much, much longer) sentences they propose the prison population is going to soar explosively. Incarceration is going to be a booming industry. I do not intend to argue the philosophical or moral issues of this proposed mass incarceration, nor the effects upon Canadian society. Still, it is obvious from the election outcome the voters of Abbotsford do not want to consider, ponder or think about those issues/questions with no easy answers. So let us consider a related issue on a topic the city has demonstrated its love of: Money! The citizens of Abbotsford loved hearing the promise of cutting taxes, but also the promise of not cutting funding to popular programs such as medical coverage. The Conservatives promised a massive increase in incarcerating Canadian citizens. This is going to require building prisons, more prison guards and administrators, an expanded court and police systems, etc. The conservative promise in this area will require billions of dollars to keep, on top of the billions they have promised to spend on the military.

Cutting taxes means the federal government have less money to pay for all these promises. Either they run a big deficit, cut Medicare or raise taxes. The voters will scream about broken promises, when they bear the responsibility. If they had listened, thought and Questioned, their choice may have been much different. People so often prefer the easy answer/way, if it sounds nice they do not really ‘listen’, avoiding the trouble (or Pain) of thinking, Then complain about the fallout of their own choices and actions.

So it is with the current homeless situation in Abbotsford. For years citizens and politicians refused and/or chose not to listen to the people who advocated: “We should address homelessness”, because it was far easier not to listen. Only now that the problem has grown so large are people listening, well at least some of the people. But far to many do not want to listen and be required to actually (shudder) think. They focus on and scream about the existence of Compassion Park to avoid thinking about the larger problem that the Park is only the tiniest symptom of. Think about it, what happens if you chase them from the Park? They will not evaporate, they will just move somewhere else, until they are chased and chased and chased and chased and chased and chased and chased and chased finally returning to the site they were originally chased from. Why wouldany one want to go right back to the pointless, costly policies and actions the city pursued before? Nothing accomplished and the homeless numbers permitted to continue into an even more overwhelming problem.

The best solution is to solve the problem of homelessness; then there is no (need for) Compassion Park. Unfortunately this ‘best solution’ is as unrealistic as many a politicians promises. Listening and thinking about the homeless situation one soon realizes how complex the situation is; one sees that it is highly improbable (OK, impossible) that you could ever reduce the number of homeless to zero. Reality is that even as you reduce the current members of the diverse group of people lumped together as homeless, new homeless are being created by government policies and policy choices. Reality is also that some of those currently homeless will, for a variety of reasons, remain homeless. While this may make one want to throw up one’s hands and give up, that is not rational. The only Rational Choice is to begin. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. We can as a city, or as a society begin to take steps to address the issues that have led the homeless into homelessness. We can reduce the current numbers of homeless, helping fellow Canadians to get back the lives and ability to choose that they lost when they began their slide into homelessness.

We do this by putting in place the services, support and aid they will need to transition off the streets. By co-ordination and co-operation among the organizations, groups and churches that step forward to act. By co-ordinating existing services so that the homeless can find the right help. It does no good to have a service available if those who need it cannot find or access it. By encouraging the homeless to seek and find the help that is already in place we maximize the effectiveness of the existing services. Co-ordination also allows these existing services to maximize the good they achieve by avoiding duplication. We also need to think about (and encourage the homeless themselves to think about) what services are needed to get off the streets.

We must remember that just getting them off the streets is not a solution. If we fail to address their needs for getting their act together and making sure they get aftercare and support, follow through (as opposed to abandoning them) they will just slip back down and onto the streets.

We need to be flexible and to remember we are dealing with people. This means problems, failures, headaches etc. It also means success, triumph and lives reclaimed. We need to be committed for the long haul.

Above all else we need to begin. To take the first steps in this years long, thousand mile journey that is needed to address the issues associated with homelessness. Otherwise we risk talking the homeless to needless pain and deaths.

Perhaps what is truly needed is motivation. I suggest we move all those involved in this issue in Abbotsford into Compassion Park. Not having nice comfortable homes to go to at the end of a day spent talking about homelessness should serve to provide the decision makers with first hand experience of conditions and needs. As an aside: I would be willing to house sit for the transplantees as I am sure several of my fellow homeless would be willing to also house sit. In fact we could do the planning and discussing as the transplantees gain in dept experience with the frustrations of homelessness. I am sure we could stall … I mean discuss the matter for a year or two. This innovative proposal on transplanting should be highly motivational in getting those first steps taken and giving back to the homeless something most have lost – HOPE.

The Core is the Problem

Sometimes it just seems that the little bit of rain that must fall into everyone’s life is turning into a deluge. With my knee/hip/back putting a serious limit on the distance I can walk I depend on my car to be able to get around to accomplish the varied tasks of the day. When the heater core/coil on my car decided to start leaking on Thursday it was a major problem; a threat to my ability to accomplish anything.

A quick consultation revealed that replacing the core was a $900 job. $900!!! If I had that kind of money to spare … but these days having that type of cash is something I can only fantasize about. Even the suggestion that something could be done for around $100 to get the car running again was well out of my reach. Fortunately the assumption of most people that the members of the homeless or recovering addict communities are stupid is totally incorrect. In fact the members of these communities have a wide variety of skills, experience and intelligence that reflects the great diversity of the people in the community. The result was that my car is currently running perfectly well, although without a functioning heater. I was only required to spend $7 (just under the actual cash I had available) for parts. Labour charges were taken care of by assumption of debt by me on behalf of the person performing the repair, a not usual financing tool in the world of corporate takeovers – or on the streets.

So I have a car that I need that now runs and although it did take all the cash I had, given my budget it was an effective use of cash. On the positive side it did ensure that I got a lot of rest and relaxation over the long weekend. R & R I really needed. So when Tuesday rolled around I was ready to go. Still I certainly hope that any further ‘rain’ hold off until I have the opportunity to acquire some spare cash – just in case it decides to deluge again.

Bikers Roar through Abbotsford

Saturday May 13th, 2006 at the Crossroads, the morning air was shattered by the roar of motorcycle engines as the bikes were fired up and the bikers headed for the highway. As they headed down the roadway the growl of their engines seemed to hang in the crisp morning air, only slowly fading into silence. All this ado was not about nothing, but was about raising money for the cause of helping the homeless to find homes and regain their joie de vive. The bikers had gathered for breakfast at Crossroads before heading out for their ride. A bag was passed at breakfast and several hundred dollars were raised. To those that organized the ride and to those that participated, I extent my thanks on behalf of my fellow homeless. They hope to make it an annual event, one of the many small contributions needed to address the issues and problems of homelessness.

It is upon this type of involvement and community support that the success or failure of any homeless initiatives will rest, for without the support of the community any initiative will fail. So if you are wondering if/what you as an individual can do here is the example of what resulted when one of your fellow citizens felt she needed to do something to contribute to the homeless and her community of Abbotsford.

You see, but you do not observe …

I was at an organization that shall remain nameless, let us call them SA for convenience. I was planning to attend an al-anon function (through the generosity of fellow members) celebrating 55 years of good work. So I sought out a washer and dryer so that in return for their thoughtfulness, I too would be thoughtful and have clean, sweet smelling garments. I turned on the washer and asked for the gift of laundry detergent. I was handed a sandwich sized baggy cantaining a mysterious white powder.

I have no doubt that if many of the writers of ‘letters to the editor’ and their like minded citizens had seen this exchange they would wrap themselves in self-righteousness braying “see, I told you they were all druggies!”. What then when I poured this white powder (laundry soap) into the4 washer? Well, heads into the sand with the other ‘Spuds’ lest they see something that disproves theiir vision of reality.

Me, I just poured thje soap into the washer and looked forward to tomorrow. After all in its 55 years Al-anon has helped many of us acheive a clear veiw of reality.