Where's Our Shame? Letters to the Editor...

Where's our shame?
The Vancouver Province
Wed 16 Jan 2008
Page: A17
Section: Editorial
Byline: Rob Gordon

If the City of Vancouver's politicians remove garbage bins from back alleys, the decision will emphasize again how much easier it is for politicians to make decisions that make life harder, not easier, for the homeless.

Everyone needs shelter. But when the homeless build shelters in parks, police and city workers remove everything. Yet, the law protects the most deadbeat renter from unexpected or immediate eviction.

Shouldn't we be ashamed that homelessness is increasing at the same time that house prices are at record levels?

We have record budget surpluses, banks are making obscene profits and the loonie is actually worth a loonie.

How does it feel to be drinking wine and eating snacks when hundreds of others are cold, wet, hungry, scared and separated from the rest of us?

Rob Gordon,
Victoria

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Politicians dither while Downtown Eastside decays
Vancouver Courier
Wed 16 Jan 2008
Page: 11
Section: Opinion
Byline: David Timmons

To the editor:
Re: "Civil talk," Jan. 9.

While we continue to have a glaring eyesore that is the homeless problem in the Downtown Eastside, politicians and officials continue to be distant and cavalier in addressing and fixing this issue.

Granted, the task of solving this encompasses time, money and vast amounts of energy and resources and it is always easier to talk the problem away rather than physically deal with it.

I have lived in Vancouver since 1989 and the problems in the Downtown Eastside appear to have worsened.

While politicians at all levels of governments have provided verbal fodder over this situation, they continue to primarily turn a physical blind eye to it.
Geoff Plant is a prime example.

What are we paying this unelected official to do?

His answers only seem to reflect what is becoming a common Vancouverite trait of getting defensive, offended and pissed off while not wanting to take any responsibility.

Can we not take a chapter from other North American cities that have had a reasonable amount of success in solving their like issues?

I would advise Mr. Plant to kindly get off his arse, while lighting a fire under the mayor and premier's butts and look at how Portland and New York City have solved to some extent their own issues of city homelessness.

All those in power with the ability to make a difference and clean up a problem that has dragged on for far too long should stop pointing fingers and passing the buck and fix this. Your various levels of incompetence are mind boggling.

Vancouver has become a decadent city with a serious attitude problem and our elected officials seem now only to be a sad reflection of this.

David Timmons,
Vancouver

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Cheers and jeers
The Globe and Mail
Wed 16 Jan 2008
Page: A18
Section: Letter To The Editor
Byline: Rolf Auer

Vancouver -- The B.C. government is planning to spend $14-billion on transit upgrades in Vancouver and surrounding regions by 2020 (B.C.'s $14- Billion Transit Bonanza - Jan. 15). Hurrah! The B.C. government (so far) is not planning to spend the $640-million needed to house the Vancouver street homeless forecasted to hit 3,200 by 2010. Boo!

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Homeless solutions must start at home
Courier-Islander (Campbell River)
Wed 16 Jan 2008
Page: A11
Section: Letters
Byline: Sian Thomson

Re: Help for homeless ideas close to home: January 2, 2008

As a member of the homelessness committee, I was disappointed that our mayor did not embrace the idea of a Mayor's Taskforce on Homelessness. I do appreciate that Roy Grant feels otherwise.

While I agree with the Mayor that homelessness is a regional issue, it is much more than that. The ultimate responsibility for the homeless crisis lies with the federal government. The federal government needs to recognize that the current homeless crisis exploded across most of this country when the federal government abandoned social housing in the mid 90s (it took a bit longer here because the BC NDP government continued to fund social housing until it was defeated in 2001).

It is exacerbated by the elimination of support programs and specialized housing for people with brain injuries and mild developmental disabilities; kids churned through the foster system until they lost their way; lack of subsidized housing to meet demand, and the narrow eligibility guidelines for inadequate rates of welfare and disability benefits.

And certainly the current crisis can be traced to the phasing out of our big mental hospitals starting in the late 1980s, with problems growing exponentially over the next 20 years. There is easy availability of street drugs to numb the pain, not to mention the taxpayer funded free syringes, alcohol swabs and now crack pipes. This makes it a provincial issue.

But homelessness begins with our local citizens who make judgements about the poor, who look the other way, who blame people for their situations, and also the homeless people themselves who are our former neighbours, who are outside, in tents, sheds, campers, vans, cars, tree houses, caves, and under tarps, in danger, suffering, sick and being neglected. We see that, they feel that, the federal and provincial governments do not. This is in our back yards, not theirs. No one knows our community and our community's homeless better than our community leaders and members. And this, Mr. McDonnell, makes it a city issue.

The provincial government has a current surplus of about $4 million. Shouldn't we, as a city, be as prepared as the others who have been forward thinking enough to have a service model and business plan in place specific to their community dynamic? If it is good enough for Victoria and Courtenay (among others) it should be good enough for Campbell River.

Sian Thomson,
Executive Director
Island J.A.D.E. Society