62 people hungry people, including a mother with three children who “just had no money for food”, were fed Tuesday night at Calvin Presbyterian Church. This is the third year for Tuesday night meals at this location, three years of increasing numbers of hungry people needing to be fed.

Two days earlier the Blue Bus handed out bags of food to 113 people – before running out. Late comers were at least fortunate there was some stew and coffee left to put something in their hungry stomachs.

Wednesday at Global Harvest floor space to move around was at a premium because of the need to crowd extra tables onto the floor to feed the hungry, including children, who came for an evening meal.

At Hillside’s monthly lunch there was just enough to give everyone one serving where usually there is enough for seconds and thirds – and it was not the quantity of food that changed.

Gordon Campbell and Rich Coleman blithely assured British Columbians that there was no need to react to the report prepared for BC Mental Health that cited 15,500 as the number of homeless on the streets of the province because “These reports always lag behind” and “I know what is happening on the ground”.

NO, you “know” what your plans say is happening on the ground. We all know just how much attention Reality pays to “plans” – none. If the politicians took the time to step outside their sheltered, privileged existence, they might come to see the difference between what they think is happening and what is actually occurring.

Rather than spending the Easter break lying on a sun soaked beach, courtesy of the large raises they voted themselves out of taxpayer’s pockets, Mr Campbell and Mr Coleman should earn those exorbitant salaries by booking their places on the Breckenridge Homeless Life Tour.

Nights spent at various locations – the emergency shelter, under bridges, bush camps, doorways or just on the street. A chance to learn how to find washroom facilities you can use or to find a place cleanup or to shower. A culinary tour de force of food sources for the hungry poor, including far too many chances to experience the delight of having to survive the night(s) without food.

Pack light tourists; keep in mind your need to carry all your belongings with you. The tour does include the one opportunity to wash and dry your belongings – if you are fortunate; it also includes opportunities to seek used clothing.

The Tour provides a unique opportunity for direct feedback from those so directly and adversely affected by government policy or lack of policy.

Whether Mr. Campbell or Mr. Coleman will take the Tour, whether they have the mental and physical toughness to last two weeks in the reality the homeless and poor face daily, they need to get out of their golden castles into the real world and experience the world of seniors, families and children who “just cannot afford food” or of the poor and homeless who “simply cannot afford housing”.

Mr. Campbell, Mr. Coleman and all the Liberal MLAs need to heed Jawaharlal Nehru’s admonition on the need to temper theory with reality; they need to open their eyes and truly see the effects their decisions and actions have on the citizens living in BC who are not part of the privileged classes.

BC Housing is in the process of forcing the Emergency Shelter in Abbotsford to switch to a 24/7 (hours/days) schedule and adopt operational policies dictated by BC Housing.

This change will have negative consequences not only on the shelter operations but upon all other programs offered at the Centre of Hope.

Why should Abbotsford be concerned? The homeless are part of our community and actions that have negative consequences upon them will in turn have negative effects upon the community as a whole.

The concern is not that BC Housing has come up with a new homeless program to be implemented through the shelters in BC, but rather that it is being imposed on all shelters without considering if the new policies are appropriate for a given shelter and/or location. They are forcing even shelters not wanting to run on the 24/7 basis, for good sound reasons, to run 24/7 – or they will not get any funding. Either the Emergency Shelter runs under their program or Abbotsford loses its shelter funding.

Since the new policy comes with increased funding, one would think that BC Housing would recognize that there must be serious concerns about the negative effects on some of the shelters for them to seek to not receive more money. Unfortunately BC Housing has not shown any evidence that they are interested in whether there are good reasons to not change shelter operations. Rather they are blindly forcing all shelters to change, ignoring that “one size fits all” policies often have very negative consequences for those of odd size.

For communities with multiple shelters, for larger shelters and shelters with separate entrances the new policy is doable.

The emergency shelter is the only shelter in Abbotsford/Mission, it is small – actually totally inadequate in size for the increasing demand for shelter space and it shares the entrance path with the majority of other programs. In fact the shelter space is used during the day for other programs.

I want to be very clear that the concern is not with the new shelter policy itself, but that due to the size and location of Abbotsford’s emergency shelter implementing it will have negative results that will far outweigh any benefits, causing a great deal of damage and hardship to the people the policy is suppose to help.

The concept behind the new policy is good. What is lacking for the new shelter policy to be solidly successful, is the other programs needed to follow upon and provide support for the homeless to transition out of the shelter system and into more (and increasingly) stable housing. The government has put up a doorframe and door as an entrance point but they have failed to build the rest of the structure needed to provide a home to the homeless. But that is an argument for another time.

As stated I like the concept behind the new shelter policy initiative. However I think that the specific physical reality of the Abbotsford emergency shelter makes it totally unsuitable to running 24/7. Forcing the shelter to run under the new 24/7 rules will have many negative consequences far outweighing any possible benefits.

Addressing homelessness requires participation by the community. In this case what is needed is for members of the community of Abbotsford to contact our local MLA’s Mike de Jong (mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca), John van Dongen (john.vandongen.mla@leg.bc.ca) Minister Rich Coleman (rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca) and Premier Gordon Campbell (gordon.campbell.mla@leg.bc.ca, premier@gov.bc.ca) asking for their help in getting BC Housing to continue to fund the emergency shelter under its current operations rather than forcing a change with negative outcomes upon the shelter.

It would not hurt to ask them to see if there are any other shelters that will be or are being negatively impacted by being forced to adopt new operational behaviours and policies.