I felt a little like Alice in Wonderland as I listened to Kamloops Mayor Terry Lake speak about how many $dollars$ the homeless cost the City of Kamloops, noting also the $dollars$ the provincial government spends on dealing with the homeless. I cast a quick glance around to check for the Mad Hatter when Mayor Lake went on to speak of the money to be saved by city and province in providing affordable and accessible housing to the homeless. One could only wish Abbotsford politicians had such a good grip on the fiscal reality of what it costs to deal with the homeless on the streets – but then if Abbotsford’s politicians had any grasp of fiscal reality we would not be mired in the quagmire of Plan A’s escalating costs.

That reality, that leaving the homeless without housing is more costly than providing housing, is why Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals are investing heavily in housing. Although given Abbotsford councils attitudes and lack of action one would never know there is funding for housing for the asking from BC Housing. Mayor Lake noted the irony that Mr. Harper’s aping of President Bush does not extent to the one area Canadians wish he would copy, the great success that American cities have had in making solid reductions in homelessness. Mr. Harper is apparently to much of an ideologue to let basic common sense or reality get in the way of how he believes the world should be.

I read the advertisement for “Expressions of Interest/Offers” by ebenezer home of “approximately 1.7 acres of developable land that are zoned P4 Special Housing” which is the zoning needed to build housing for those suffering addiction and homeless. I noted with regret that the advertisement spoke of “with rezoning, significantly higher density use is possible”, although the mention of rezoning was not surprise. After all in Abbotsford everyone knows that planning and zoning have no real meaning, being changed or ignored at the City’s whim. Unlike the city of Kamloops where council has a plan to ensure that affordable housing is included in the housing mix. More importantly they stick to their plan.

Of course Kamloops is also a city where it is considered a no-brainer that if a non-profit organization is engaged in activities that are good for or benefit Kamloops then property taxes are waived. Sounds pretty much like a no-brainer doesn’t it? When one of the not for profit societies that support people with severe and persistent mental illness in our community asked Chilliwack and Abbotsford, in light of the good they do both communities, to waive the property taxes on their facilities in both communities it was a no-brainer for Chilliwack which said yes. In Abbotsford’s case it was a matter of NO. When a phone call was placed to ask why and a message left … there was not even the courtesy of a reply. They are left to send a delegation to council to present their case in hopes that council will see fit to provide the permissive tax exemption for 2009.

If Abbotsford council will not waive property taxes for a non-profit organization that is demonstrably a good citizen I do not think there is much chance of them following Kamloops and waiving development cost charges or selling land at reduced prices to encourage the development of affordable housing or homeless housing projects. If cities the size of Chilliwack, with less than $33 million dollars in annual tax revenue they are extremely supportive in foregoing developmental costs to support affordable housing initiatives and annual property taxes to both not-for profit societies and BC Housing projects, Abbotsford should be expected to come to the table with similar support to subsidized housing projects as well as for not-for-profit service providers.

Concepts such a lenient suite policies, resisting NIMBYism and fast tracking these projects while common practice in Kamloops, as part of their affordable housing and housing mix strategy, seem beyond the grasp of Abbotsford’s council.

Across Canada we are seeing increasing numbers of families with children, seniors and people employed full time who cannot afford housing and groceries. This changing face of homelessness is why citizens need to demand that all levels of government come to the table to deal with this growing crisis. It is also why Mayor Lake is right, affordable housing must be treated as infrastructure, and city councils cannot sit around but must be pro-active, fully engaged and providing leadership.

For my mental health we left Kamloops and the conference on community supported housing for the homeless and people with addictions, without attending the final session. The person I was travelling with felt that letting me sit through the panel: “Kamloops in Action: How to eradicate homelessness in Kamloops” would severely depress me. I am not sure if he was more worried about my mental state or facing the long drive back to Abbotsford with a severely depressed travelling companion. He was right though, listening to all the progress and positive things going on in Kamloops would have been depressing for anyone in the audience facing a return to the current status quo in Abbotsford.

As conferences are, this one was opened on Wednesday by a local politician, the mayor of Kamloops Terry Lake. As I expected, based on experience with conferences on housing in Abbotsford, Kamloop’s Mayor Terry Lake started out by laying out the tax and cash realities of municipal, provincial and federal governments. But from there … these fiscal realities were not used as an excuse for doing nothing nor for pointing the finger and stating “it was the responsibility of more senior levels of government to address these issues”. Rather than see fiscal reality as an excuse to do nothing, Mayor Lake and his council see fiscal reality as requiring them to form partnerships with provincial and federal governments in order to obtain the needed funds.

This attitude no doubt explains why it is that the City of Kamloops with a population of 80,376 (2006 census) has received millions of $dollars$ in provincial and federal funding; has completed housing projects, has housing projects under way, has a ground-breaking for a new project about to take place, has a new project to preserve affordable housing stock sitting there awaiting the City facilitating the right partnerships; why BC Housing is anxious to work more with and provide more funding to Kamloops; Kamloops is attracting so much money for affordable housing projects.

Such clear evidence that the only reason that Abbotsford, with its population of 123,864 versus Kamloops 80,376 (2006 census) does not have millions of $dollars$ to invest in affordable housing projects is that Abbotsford’s elected officials are to lazy or to bumbling to get off their keisters and perform the ridiculously simple task required to get those millions of $dollars$ of funding – ask – is depressing.

Undoubtedly Abbotsford City Hall and Council will claim “its not that simple”. The reality is that yes, it is pretty much that simple. It is really no more difficult for a municipality to secure funding for homeless housing initiatives than it is for a municipality to secure funding for capital projects undertaken by the municipality. I admit that Abbotsford City Council has demonstrated itself to be challenged in the area of capital grants/funding, but the successes of Langley, Chilliwack, Kamloops etc. demonstrate that this is quite doable. Kamloops demonstrates funding is not a function of size but of the fight, the leadership in the City Council.

Throughout the conference attendees were going up to Kamloop’s city councillors (yes there were Kamloop’s city councillors who attended the entire conference) and seeking their advice about getting housing projects up and funded. Boggles the mind does it not, people seeking city councils advice on a matter because of council’s demonstrated ability on any matter? Kamloops City Council is not arguing about the extent of homelessness, researching, awaiting a report from planning or social advisory committees reports. Kamloops City Council is working on “Kamloops in Action: How to eradicate homelessness in Kamloops”.

Sitting through the panel session, listening to Kamloops city council on eliminating homelessness, listening to the litany of all that had been accomplished, was being planned and would be accomplished in Kamloop’s would have been very, very depressing. To know that the only true reason progress is NOT occurring in Abbotsford, but is being made in communities all around us and around the province, is a lack of leadership and will. To know that with leadership we could have BC Housing fund the purchase and renovation of the housing stock in the Fraser Valley Inn, a start.

At least the next time city council begins to claim there is nothing they can do, we have merely to demand: “If Kamloop’s and others can accomplish all this, why can you accomplish nothing but excuses? Some leadership please.”