“Are we serious about social planning or is this lip service?” asked Coun. Lynne Harris. “I would like to see some real action taken”

Only one person out of all the members of council and the city administration seems able to see the Real World and what is taking place on the streets and in the social structure of our City. In the same article about the social planners report the reporter writes: “but there will be no quick fix to cure some of the problems highlighted.” Evidence, based on the experience that the city uses lip service not action to address social problems, suggests that no real actions will be taken in spite of councillor Harris’s expressed desire to actually act on these social problems.

Since last year the refrain from the City has been ‘we will act as soon as the Social Planner reports on what we need to do.’ I do not know about you but to me this says the Social Planner was suppose to actually do some planning, not write a report with a long list of social ills and conclude this pressing issue needs more procrastinating than the years of no action, ‘DOH, what problem?’ the city has already wasted in permitting the situation to grow and fester into a mountain. One can only wonder how many more ‘Planning Reports’, how many years of ‘study’, how much more lip service and what other excuses the ‘recommended’ Social Sustainability Advisory Committee will come up with over the coming years and decades for taking no action.

Social planner Jodi-Lyn Newnham did get one thing correct when she wrote “What will differentiate Abbotsford from other communities is how we choose to respond.” As was clear from the statistics cited on the CBC Canada Now report of April 5, 2005 about the website www.homelessinabbotsford.com and the social situation in Abbotsford, all other cities are achieving some successes in addressing their social ills. Of course they are actually facing their responsibilities and needs and taking action on them. Abbotsford has definitely differentiated itself from other communities in choosing to respond by sitting around paying lip service to the problem instead of acting and improving the social situation as other communities have done. Something for the City council and administration, together with the citizens they represent, to be proud of?

I was sent a copy of the ‘pamphlet’ that Mr. Teichroeb claimed was given to the homeless as they were being forced to relocate in order that the city could ‘clean up’ the site they were occupying. Mr. Jim Wright forwarded it to me after he had received it from the City Manager of Bylaws.

1. This is a revised letter. In the original I failed to note the May 2005 revision date. I also could not find the Park Inn Hotel when I searched for Hotels and Motels in Abbotsford. I mistakenly thought that perhaps it was one of the hotels the city had earlier torn down, but being uncomfortable with making an assumption I widened my search (experience is that assumptions can cause problems, so I went back to widen the search in hopes of having fact not assumption) Further research turned up at 2509 Pauline Street: Park Inn Cold Beer & Wine Store; Park Inn Hotel – listed as a Bed & Breakfast; Station Pub & Restaurant. I am not sure what use this is to the homeless not of the wisdom/reason of including a wine and beer store and a pub on a list that is suppose to be of assistance in overcoming homelessness.

2. “General Housing Services”. I would never have considered a Motel to be “general housing services”. Calling a Motel “general housing services” is meaningless gibberish of the first order. Besides at $66.00 a night, if you can afford Super 8, you can afford housing in Abbotsford.

3. Should any readers of this letter have the misfortune to need to seek shelter and the much greater misfortune to be depending on the city for help and/or information in finding shelter (or help) do not waste time seeking the “William Booth Emergency Shelter” on Morey Street. Not there. And of course the Salvation Army Share & Care Centre has relocated.

4. Since this came from Gordon Ferguson it would appear that Mr. Teichroeb is not alone as a member of the city administration who lacks the ability to apply intelligent thought to the homeless situation. Why else would one be handing out an out-dated John Howard Society pamphlet (for newly released prisoners) to the homeless (note: I have not been able to locate a relocated homeless person who actually was handed this pamphlet). One would reasonable expect that city officials should be aware of major changes (front page reports in the local papers) in the city, such as the move of the Salvation Army.