It's not a homeless crisis

It's a decision making and administrative crisis. There's more than enough money around to solve the problem and to keep it solved. Here's a country that has the resources to remove every single homeless person in Canada , house them in reasonable modular homes, feed them and look after their health. Like I said in a previous confessional rant, there's unbelievable amounts of money flowing into the coffers of all levels of Government and Crown Corporations, yet getting that money out into society in an efficient way is next to impossible. As it is, it's the individual City's problem and neither the Provinces or the Fed show any interest in developing a nationwide policy to fix things. They shovel money out off the back of trucks to places like The Portland Hotel Society and their ilk ( most do a great job but it's like running water uphill) and there is absolutely no improvement. Hastings Street downtown is a national disgrace and present attempts to clean it up are an abysmal failure. You can't fix this thing with the approach we have been using for the last 20 years. You need stronger laws that enable us to take people into care who can't look after themselves . We used to have that when Riverview was fully operational but since it was wound down, the helpless and the homeless and the mentally ill have had no place to live but the street. So now it's not only downtown but it's in Coquitlam on the riverbanks, in Surrey in the parks, in Maple Ridge, in Mission with tent cities. Just doling out money without some sort of target and strategy to reduce the pain has not worked and never will work

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Anonymous

Jun 24, 2018 at 1:13pm

The problem will never be solved because too many people are making too much money off these wretched people . Think about how many people are employed and making good money because of the DTES. Police, fire fighters, paramedics, social workers, gov't workers, and many others are making money off the misery of these people.
They would never admit it to you, but their livelihood would disappear if the the people living in misery were to be transferred to a facility where they would be cared for properly and treated for their mental illness and addiction problems.

Yes

Jun 24, 2018 at 5:55pm

Back when they first talked about closing Riverview and Woodlands, I recall saying exactly the same thing. The government at the time was trying to make brownie points with the big money bunch, so of course the first thing that comes to mind when you think that way is bottom line! Closing it down was more cost effective, and that’s the only reason they did it. Oh for sure they tried to sell it to us using a “institutional life is so archaic” line, but the reality is that unless they have enough other resources in place for those people who cannot function on their own, the present situation was bound to happen. I hate that I was right about this. Shame on the ones in charge who threw the truly vulnerable to the wolves!!!

16 9Rating: +7

People....

Jun 24, 2018 at 7:28pm

with half decent employment are finding tough to make ends meet, the less fortunate are literally up against a wall.

The first thing to do

Jun 25, 2018 at 1:11pm

is get rid of the "Social Worker" system.

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