Category Archives: Homeless

Homeless, Municipal

Follow Up?

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With a little forethought and patience the city is emptying Compassion Park of inhabitants quietly, without a confrontation for the media. Getting the people of the Park onto Social Assistance has given these homeless the ability/option of finding a roommate (with the unrealistic provincial shelter rates you NEED a roommate) so as to have accommodation. Having been together in the Park and on the streets will hopefully allow them to find a roommate they can live with – at least long enough for both people to get onto their feet. Helping the few percent of the homeless that were camping in the Park still leaves the vast majority (96 – 98%) of the homeless on the street and outdoors. However, having reminded the reader, that so far only a tiny portion of the homeless on the streets of Abbotsford have been helped, there is another very important issue connected to the process of helping that needs addressing. FOLLOW UP.

What happens now with those the city has succeeded in helping these people, this one small group of homeless, in getting onto assistance and (hopefully) into shelter? Most have, at one time or several times, been on assistance before. Being on assistance and in accommodation did not stop them from ending up on the streets homeless. Which is were (with high probability) they will end up again if all the help they get is to get them onto assistance, into some form of shelter – and incidently, out of the Park and the city’s hair. Which begs the question: Was the city’s purpose to merely get them out of the Park quietly OR was it to help them get life together?

As I stress the homeless are not one single thing, but I also stress the need to be realistic in addressing the issue of the homeless. Being realistic, if you have ended up homeless and on the streets, there is a strong likelihood that one has barriers other than just the need to get onto social assistance and into shelter. If those who would help do not acknowledge and plan for the need to address these underlying barriers they have, in the mid to longer term, accomplished nothing as those in need of non-existant support slide back down and back out onto the streets. I have all to often watched people come out of treatment and back into the same circumstances that they were in before they sought treatment. Slowly they slip back into their old habits and behaviours, then back into their addictions. In the same way, merely getting those in the Park into housing is only the begining of getting them back onto their feet and into mainstream society. If we do not establish some system to – get them help in addressing any barriers, help in making better choices, help in establishing a support system for the rough patches, help in finding employment, getting them engaged with ‘normal’ people and activities and some touchback system to maintain contact so that if there is a need it can be (one hopes) addressed before they crash and burn; what will help them to avoid landing on the streets once more?

Getting them onto assistance, into shelter and off the streets (or out of the Park) is the easy part. Getting together and delivering the support needed to aid them to make the lifestyle changes needed to get on with life and to not slip back down and out onto the streets of Abbotsford is complex, tricky and hard. It is also the the most important aspect to success in aiding the homeless.

Federal, Homeless, Municipal, Provincial

Re: News letters of April 29, 2006

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To Mr. Hoekstra:

I must point out that it would have made it easier to understand and appreciate his problems if he had told us what business he was managing and its location (if necessary). I heartily agree that “Our focus show be on treating our ill citizens not expecting them to camp out in the rain.” Unfortunately the problem has been ignored by both the politicians and citizens, such as Mr. Hoekstra, until it has reached the point where it has become such a large problem that it can no longer be ignored. The difficultly with the approach of ignoring the problem until it becomes ‘in your face’ in size is that there is nothing in place to address the issue. As a homeless person myself I regret the need for compassion park. But until the politicians and citizens get their act together and start to get the needed co-ordination, programs and access to facilities in place the people of Abbotsford are going to have to endure compassion park and the other problems associated with having allowed the homeless. It is the price society pays for sitting on its a** with its head in the sand on an issue it wanted to ignore because it had no neat, comfortable 100% successful solutions, until it reached the size it could not be ignored. I do feel insulted Mr. Hoekstra paints us all with the same brush, many of the homeless are extremely honest and honorable. At the same time I acknowledge his difficulties and the difficulties that others can have. But, if you chose to ignore a problem until it blows up in your face, you have to deal with the mess it makes as well as the original problem. Oh, as a final point, you might want to worry about the type of customers you have if you need to worry about them “accidentally” driving over people.

To Mr. Pihowich:

I can only say: get a dictionary. It is clear from your letter you have no understanding of what the word solution means. Solution: a. The method or process of solving a problem. b. The answer to or disposition of a problem. A solution requires solving the problem of the homeless. Spreading the homeless and their tents throughout the city in backyards solves nothing. Of course it would hide the problem so it could be ignored again. At least until it reached truly gigantic problems. Of course ignoring the problem is how it reached its present state and size, but then if you cannot understand what a solution involves it is hardly surprising you cannot understand the consequences of continuing to avoid addressing the homeless situation. As to those Barbecues, you might want to ask Councilor Lowen as I understand that one of them was his originally. But generousity is probably in the class of ‘solution’, that class of ideas and concepts you cannot grasp.

Addiction

Re: “Spud” Murphy letter, Times April 28

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submitted April 28th

Mr. Murphy certainly has the correct nickname. “after all, these people need alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth, heroin etc.” It is apparent from this statement that “Spud” has his head buried deep in the earth. This serves to explain his inability to see the real world around him. As one of “these people” I need affordable housing (or an adjustment in the $325.00 shelter allowance to a realistic level; $325.00 for a place in Abbotsford?), food, showers, laundry, a phone, transportation, employment and a helping hand. I have no need of mind-altering substances.

Although given “Lord High Commissioner, sheriff of the forest and Robin Hood and his merry band” one could wonder just what mind altering substances old “Spud” is doing. Plus, use of mind-altering substances would explain “Spud’s” altered view of reality vis-à-vis the true nature and needs of “these people” such as I.