Warehousing is not a solution, it is only a band-aid. I worry that the public will be misled into thinking this $80 million purchase of hotels by the Liberal government is a solution rather than just the first step of a multi-year long process.
It is also most worrisome that the Liberal government appears to fail to see any homelessness beyond the boundary of Greater Vancouver. The hundreds of homeless roaming the streets of Abbotsford also are in dire need of shelter Mr. Campbell, what of them?
Having said that it was still good to see the provincial government begin to acknowledge the extent of the homeless challenge we as a society and province face. This move does serve to secure these buildings for very low income housing. Ideally we would be building from the ground up to incorporate the lessons experience has taught us about designing this type of transitional housing.
Unfortunately procrastination on homelessness by all levels of government have denied us the luxury of time. While not ideal this purchase and rehab gets these units online quickly. We need to follow this beginning up by starting NOW to plan and build the additional transitional housing units required by the number of homeless on our streets, numbers that are a result of our failure to take action. These new units we can design and build based on the lessons our hard earned experience has taught us.
Simply warehousing the homeless is not a solution. At the rate our society for a variety of reasons is generating new homeless, simply warehousing the homeless continuously lead to overflowing “warehouses” and the need to be continuously adding warehouse space.
From years of experience we know the form and nature of the programs we need to put in place if we want to make progress and reduce the homeless population. I have no illusions that homelessness can be reduced to zero. I know, we know, based on experience, that we can significantly reduce the homeless population. IF we choose to make the investment in housing, detoxification, recovery and community based support programs experience we need to put in place.
The true challenge in reducing homelessness lies in the fact that the needed course of action requires leadership, boldness, a willingness to face an unpleasant reality, change our current approach and the willingness to accept and deal with the unavoidable problems in helping people with many behavioural difficulties. All of which, regrettably, politicians would rather avoid in the service of opinion polls and the name of winning politics.
It is easy to spend $80 million on buildings, especially when it permits announcing this purchase with pomp, circumstance and self congratulations.
Investing $80+ million in the housing and recovery/support programs we know we need to put in place is hard. Politics may be a blood sport but it is easy to play. It is far harder to address the complex, unpleasant and unpopular problem of homelessness calling as it does for character and the willingness to stand up and be counted not because it is politically popular but because it is the right thing, the Canadian way to behave.
Politics or Leadership, the homeless ball is currently in the court Mr. Campbell and his Liberals .