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.
