Homeless in Abbotsford, BC

Eradicating Homelessness in Abbotsford

... a matter of Leadership.

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.

Statistic - meaningful or empty of meaning?

One of our city councilors sent an email asking the source of the statement that Abbotsford has the highest per capital median income. The coucilor cited a chart: Median total income, by family type, by census metropolitan area (All census families) showing Abbotsford ranking well below number one. I asked if going with a family chart when the donations were on an individual basis was proper.

I also acknowledged that due to my current homelessness I do not have access to my computer and the files on it, further my written files and notes are in storage with the computer. All I have is a workbook full of interesting data points. I do know that the data I was working with originally was in a much more "raw" or detailed format/state, but lacking access to my files I cannot quantify matters at this time.

Recognize that the experience of being homeless is one of the reasons I have serious questions about the generousity in this City. It is also why actions, not words or wasting time in self congratulations, is a priority from my point of view

Checking later I found the councilor had sent an email with a chart of individual median incomes. In reviewing the data in the chart sent to me by the councilor I was struck by all the qualifiers and quantifiers applied to arrive at the data in the form it was presented in the chart. In thinking about this list and its qualifiers and quantifiers I decide my pool ponderings had a large degree of truth to them.

I had gone to the pool after the original exchange of emails. The way my mind works it was unable not to ponder the questions raised by the councilor and the concepts of donations, median, individual income etc (and don't you wish our politicians and leaders also could not avoid spending time thinking about questions raised and related questions/ideas?). For instance median means middle. You stack all the donations up and the one that is in the middle is the median. Many people confuse average with median. Which had me asking why are they using median instead of average? I spent all 2000 meters, showering and dressing contemplating the question of the meaning of the median donation and what it signified.

What does the median imcome of a population have to do with the median donations? The median donation is decided only using the donations themselves. Does it not follow that in determining a median income level we should only be considering the median incomes of those who gave donations? What about the question of how many donors were included in determing the median donation? There are very different implications if median of one is composed of 5 donors and the other of 5,000 donors. Can you compare Abbotsford with a 2006 census population of 123, 864 to Toronto with a 2006 census population of 2,503,281?

So at 1:30 AM as I mull over all these and the other thoughts/questions I am left wondering about what if anything this idea of median donations tells us or if it has any meaning at all. I can think of many other measures I would want to know in determining the most generous city in Canada. I am left with the conclusion that median donation is pretty much a null value point, meaningless other than giving the city of Abbotsford bragging rights and city politicians another excuse to hide behind in regards to taking no action on social issues such as poverty, homelessness and affordable housing.

What a statistic really means, or if it really has any meaning at all needs careful thought. It is why I recommend “How to Lie with Statistics”, Darrell Huff’s perennially best-selling introduction to statistics for the general reader.

I wiah to underscore my original assertion that this median donation number does not reflect the reality on the streets of Abbotsford where more families, children and seniors depend on charitable organizations and people for food, clothing and other necessities, where the streets become home to increasing numbers of homeless daily and adults, children and seniors go to sleep each night hungry.

If in fact Abbotsford is the most generous city in the country where do all the dollars go? Because being homeless and looking around Abbotsford it is clear the dollars are not going to help neighbours in need of help and other worthy causes.