Category Archives: Thoughts

Consider, Federal, Municipal

I voted – did you?

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I went and voted today. As I wrote earlier having become one of the “undesirables” I have a vested interest in protecting the Charter of Rights. This seems to be particularly important in light of the city government’s current war on the underclass to which I belong. I was allowed to cast my vote. It appears that in the eyes of the Federal government I still have citizenship rights and the right to cast my ballot. In fact it appears that the Federal government considers me a citizen of Abbotsford, in spite of what the city government may claim, as they accepted my right to vote in a downtown Abbotsford poll.

A tip of the hat to Elections Canada with regards to voting. Although they had to look up the procedure for a homeless person to vote, the people at the poll were courteous and unfazed by my homelessness. I needed ID and to swear an oath but that was to be expected and reasonable. Nice to see that at least one level of government is in touch with reality with respect to the existence of the homeless.

Hmmm, Municipal, Provincial

a Strange look

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I fell into a discussion about ‘bait’ cars the other evening. How to recognize a bait car, precautions to take just in case you judged wrong and the car you stole turned out to be a bait car and you needed to be able to escape the car.

It was a simple straightforward and interesting discussion I was having with a fellow homeless person. Now I was not, nor do I believe was my conversational partner, planning to run out and steal a car. It was just an interesting conversation on a wet night, taking place where a local church was providing food and clothing to the homeless – as they do every week on that evening. One of their newer members was sitting where he could listen and when I glanced his way he had a rather strange look on his face. I suppose it sounded like we were planning to go out and steal cars. His look suggested he could not quite believe what he was hearing, that the thought that people who needed money for food and/or shelter would consider stealing had never occurred to him. It did give me a chuckle at the time.

It also made me wonder what politicians or the public are thinking sometimes. OK – I concede that getting politicians to think is probably a forlorn hope, but I still have hopes the public can think on this subject if one can get in front of them information such as this blog. Just recently a rumour (true or not I cannot say) had the government planning to start to kick a large number of people off the welfare rolls. Which I suppose they spin to get public applause and in hopes that by pulling out this old tattered ploy they could get voters to forget all the idiocy the current government is and has embraced.

I have had some cold hungry days and it is still early winter. I know that get me cold, hungry and desperate enough – morals and honesty be damned. Even a warm cell and 3 meals a day beats cold starvation “free” on the streets. Could that be the provincial government plan? Starve the homeless and the poor enough to commit crimes, arrest them, lock them in jail and voila! The streets are free of homeless. Well until government policy causes more unfortunates to fall into the clutches of the system. Or those in jail are freed for lack of jail space or the end of their sentences. Then you have more homeless than you started with. But, the government does gain a bogeyman to spook the electorate with at the next election (and avoid running on what they actually did). It is an extremely expensive course of action and when you look at what it would accomplish – NOTHING – it is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars. But as recent news reminds us, this is a government that has no hesitation in wasting tax dollars gain political advantage or in pursuit of their ideology.

Homeless, Poverty

You are ALREADY paying.

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I got an email from an individual who had visited the homeless in abbotsford site and was working, himself, on trying to get something done about the homeless situation. (Quick aside – he offered any help he could to me – even something as simple as laundry, which I may need to accept in order to dry out dampness from our weather. Anyway, thank you sir for you kind offer). He did note that he expected that Abbotsford Mayor George Ferguson would say it was a provincial responsibility and the city had no money for doing anything. Mr. Ferguson et al: recall the words on Charles Dickens as expressed through the character of Marley “Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

Which calls to mind the ‘Mankind is our business’ of the Rotary organization.

But let us set aside the moral bankruptcy of focusing on the question of dollars and cents and just address the question of city spending on homelessness. REALITY: the city is currently spending thousands, more likely HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars on homelessness. Every time the police stop to wake up and move on a sleeping homeless person the city is paying salary for the time spent moving – often over and over – the homeless. This is true for every call or interaction the police have with the homeless. Haul them to jail – more dollars added to the amount spent on homelessness. Something needs clean up? – more dollars. Dollars and more dollars spent in numerous and varied ways adding up and up and up. But these costs are hidden in other budgets so those who fail to think just say “no money” to spend on homelessness – as if they were not already spending hundreds of thousands. Remaining with just the police. The police department claims it needs more resources to deal with the local gang situation and with the gang shoot outs in public places all over the news they may well get it. But – I wonder just how many more resources they would have available Right Now for dealing with the gangs, before these gangs grow in power and trouble caused, IF they were not required to spend all that time moving the homeless from spot to spot. Because all you do is move them from spot to spot, over and over again, until you begin to address the underlying needs.

So the city is currently spending hundreds of thousands in direct costs and incurring all kinds of hidden costs (things that do not get dealt with because of the need to spend time dealing with the homeless situation) on homelessness. And what is it getting? What is accomplished? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The ranks of the homeless continue to grow. And why does all this waste occur? Lack of leadership. In this day and age it seems that leadership consists of finding out which way the wind blows, the mob is heading or what the public believes and getting out in front, into the so-called lead. This is NOT leadership. Leadership is studying the real situation, seeing what has to be done and even if unpopular doing it. Leadership is standing in front of the crowd and saying this is the wrong way to go, explaining why and where the crowd needs to go/be doing and LEADING the way to dealing with the actual problems. Those who are in the public eye who have pretensions of being leaders need to keep in mind what real leadership is about. There is enough smoke and mirrors used by the politicians on the question of the homeless that we do not need any more. What we do need is real, thoughtful leadership.

Just remember that we are already spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in dealing with the fallout from the homeless situation. It is just that currently all that money is WASTED on the symptoms of the problem rather than being invested in dealing with the problem. So if you are tired of the old ‘money down the drain’ way of operating, demand a little really leadership on the homeless. If the politicians continue to prefer to be obstacles and refusing to be leaders in this area, well it is time to find and rally around someone willing to lead. Someone who is not about a popularity contest or what they believe is the case, but about looking at what is and what needs to be done.