Homeless in Abbotsford, BC
I DO NOT, HAVE NOT, WOULD NOT ever suggest throwing money at a problem. I am a REALIST, believing in examining a problem to understand what the situation IS. I am not an Ideologue who, wearing the blinders of ideology, looks at a situation and sees what they want to see, not what really is. There is NO perfect solution. A system dealing with people demands flexibility and denies neat, easy answers. Rigidly applying Ideology guarantees failure. How I came to homelessness: click Backstory below.
MSA - Why Rush to Destruction?
"Invest in land -- The good lord keeps making people, but he don't make no more land."
That was the advice of Joseph J. Tallal, Jr a renowned expert in real estate investments. It came to mind as I was reading about the $4.5 million Fraser Health was going to spend knocking down MSA Hospital after the move to the new Hospital.
Their plans for redevelopment of the old hospital sounded well thought out but … what is the need to rush to destruction? Land does not go bad and as Mr. Tallal noted no more land is being made so delaying redevelopment will not result in any loss of value.
Abbotsford is faced by an arduous task – meeting the challenge of the growing numbers of homeless on our streets, as if the abundant numbers of those currently homeless was not challenge enough.
The reality is that other than some “on paper progress” the City continues its failure to provide leadership on this issue.
We do not have the luxury of continuing the behaviours of our current city council. We need facilities and action NOW.
More importantly, if we commit ourselves to the goal of ending homelessness in Abbotsford in ten years, there is no purpose served in spending money constructing buildings that are needed for a relatively short number of years. Also, the maximum space needed, the maximum number of homeless to be worked with will occur in the first years. As we progress to our goal of ending homelessness, as we reduce the number of homeless on our streets, we will need less space, less staff and smaller facilities.
The old hospital is a community asset, a facility whose purpose is to meet a community need. While Abbotsford has outgrown the old hospital’s capacity to serve as a hospital, Abbotsford, as a community, still has a need for the facility to meet a different, but no less meaningful need of the community.
As a community we cannot afford to stand around and allow this rush to destruction of a facility that our community has an urgent need for.
I am not advocating that Fraser Health never redevelop the property. Indeed I would support a fixed period (3 - 4 years) being set for the building to serve to help the community in accomplishing its goal of ending homelessness after which Fraser Health would proceed with redevelopment.
City staff’s report and recommendations on the 18 applications for licensing as a recovery home has just been finished. Just 18 out of how many? 40 to 50 plus? When the City begins to act and close down unlicensed recovery houses we face a flood of people having nowhere to go but onto the streets.
Our streets are full of homeless whose numbers grow daily; we face a flood of homeless from closing unlicensed recovery houses; we need someplace to provide shelter for these people; we need to be able to feed these people, provide hygiene and laundry; we need office space to deal with the challenges of helping the homeless find themselves and homes; we need leadership and to start acting in a responsible manner.
We need to remind Fraser Health that Mental Health and Addictions is part of their turf. That Fraser Health is charged with responsibility for meeting the health needs of the Fraser Health Region including Abbotsford; they are responsible for dealing with Mental Health and Addictions issues affecting Abbotsford.
Fraser Health needs to understand and acknowledge that meeting their duty of care for mental health and addictions requires dealing with the homeless suffering mental illness and/or addiction; that, whether they like it or not, in dealing with the issue of mental health and addiction afflicting the homeless they are part of addressing the issue of homelessness.
It is reasonable to request Fraser Health meet, at least in part, its duty of care to the homeless and homelessness by making MSA Hospital available for a limited period of time to serve on the frontlines of ending homelessness in Abbotsford.
With the numbers of homeless growing and with the potential tsunami of homeless from the closing of unregistered recovery homes the City does not have the luxury to continue business as usual on the homelessness front.
We need leadership. We must begin to get our act together and take action. We need the use of MSA Hospital.
Disagree? Let us hear a plan, another workable suggested course of action, let us debate our course of action – then act.
"Invest in land -- The good lord keeps making people, but he don't make no more land."
That was the advice of Joseph J. Tallal, Jr a renowned expert in real estate investments. It came to mind as I was reading about the $4.5 million Fraser Health was going to spend knocking down MSA Hospital after the move to the new Hospital.
Their plans for redevelopment of the old hospital sounded well thought out but … what is the need to rush to destruction? Land does not go bad and as Mr. Tallal noted no more land is being made so delaying redevelopment will not result in any loss of value.
Abbotsford is faced by an arduous task – meeting the challenge of the growing numbers of homeless on our streets, as if the abundant numbers of those currently homeless was not challenge enough.
The reality is that other than some “on paper progress” the City continues its failure to provide leadership on this issue.
We do not have the luxury of continuing the behaviours of our current city council. We need facilities and action NOW.
More importantly, if we commit ourselves to the goal of ending homelessness in Abbotsford in ten years, there is no purpose served in spending money constructing buildings that are needed for a relatively short number of years. Also, the maximum space needed, the maximum number of homeless to be worked with will occur in the first years. As we progress to our goal of ending homelessness, as we reduce the number of homeless on our streets, we will need less space, less staff and smaller facilities.
The old hospital is a community asset, a facility whose purpose is to meet a community need. While Abbotsford has outgrown the old hospital’s capacity to serve as a hospital, Abbotsford, as a community, still has a need for the facility to meet a different, but no less meaningful need of the community.
As a community we cannot afford to stand around and allow this rush to destruction of a facility that our community has an urgent need for.
I am not advocating that Fraser Health never redevelop the property. Indeed I would support a fixed period (3 - 4 years) being set for the building to serve to help the community in accomplishing its goal of ending homelessness after which Fraser Health would proceed with redevelopment.
City staff’s report and recommendations on the 18 applications for licensing as a recovery home has just been finished. Just 18 out of how many? 40 to 50 plus? When the City begins to act and close down unlicensed recovery houses we face a flood of people having nowhere to go but onto the streets.
Our streets are full of homeless whose numbers grow daily; we face a flood of homeless from closing unlicensed recovery houses; we need someplace to provide shelter for these people; we need to be able to feed these people, provide hygiene and laundry; we need office space to deal with the challenges of helping the homeless find themselves and homes; we need leadership and to start acting in a responsible manner.
We need to remind Fraser Health that Mental Health and Addictions is part of their turf. That Fraser Health is charged with responsibility for meeting the health needs of the Fraser Health Region including Abbotsford; they are responsible for dealing with Mental Health and Addictions issues affecting Abbotsford.
Fraser Health needs to understand and acknowledge that meeting their duty of care for mental health and addictions requires dealing with the homeless suffering mental illness and/or addiction; that, whether they like it or not, in dealing with the issue of mental health and addiction afflicting the homeless they are part of addressing the issue of homelessness.
It is reasonable to request Fraser Health meet, at least in part, its duty of care to the homeless and homelessness by making MSA Hospital available for a limited period of time to serve on the frontlines of ending homelessness in Abbotsford.
With the numbers of homeless growing and with the potential tsunami of homeless from the closing of unregistered recovery homes the City does not have the luxury to continue business as usual on the homelessness front.
We need leadership. We must begin to get our act together and take action. We need the use of MSA Hospital.
Disagree? Let us hear a plan, another workable suggested course of action, let us debate our course of action – then act.
Integrity.
Reading a newspaper article about how the popularity of the provincial Liberal government has seemingly not been affected by all the questions about its integrity served to remind me that I wanted to comment on the lack of integrity of our provincial government.
Admittedly all our current political parties and most, if not all, politicians are “integrity challenged”, it is just that the Liberals are the party running our province giving them a public ability to display this lack of integrity.
Integrity: adherence to moral and ethical principles; honesty; freedom from corrupting influence or motive; uprightness; rectitude.
Integrity is not about being able to say “I/we have done nothing wrong”, it is about behaving in a consistent manner; one can behave one way here and another way there. Nor does one get to avoid or ignore reality just because it does not fit into your world view or political philosophy.
Behaving with integrity is the foundation on which government behaviour should be built. Sadly this is not the way current governments at any level behave.
This question of integrity comes to mind every time I hear the government advertisement about the rent subsidy program for families making $35,000 or less per year. $35,000 per year and you need a rent subsidy. $7300 per year and you do not need a rent subsidy – if you are on Income Assistance.
I concede that to a certain extent this is comparing apples and oranges but … for a government that acknowledges that the cost of renting is so high in the lower mainland that at an income of $35,000 a subsidy is needed, to claim that $375 a month is adequate for a person on Income Assistance to find shelter is duplicitous.
This behaviour lacks Integrity.
Another glaring example is that if you are on or eligible for Income Assistance and you deal with the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance you will receive $610 a month of which $375 is for shelter. If you have to spend $600 a month on rent (if you can find something habitable for that) and only have $10 to live on – it is your problem.
However should you go to a shelter and use the BC Housing outreach program to find housing you can get an additional rent subsidy up to $120 per month. At these levels of income the $120 has a huge impact on your quality of life, especially the quality of housing.
It gives an unfair competitive advantage in the competition to find housing to those who receive the extra $120, further marginalizing those on “just Income Assistance.” It also makes the outreach/shelter programs appear more successful than they really are – at the expense of the most vulnerable people.
This behaviour lacks Integrity.
I am considering writing a brochure on the existence of this subsidy and the steps required to obtain/qualify for this subsidy in order to level the playing field, promoting fairness and integrity.
Could I get this subsidy? It is a moot point because, as badly needed as the extra $120 maybe, the actions required in getting this subsidy would lack integrity.
The government is behaving without integrity, with a total lack of fairness and are “cheating” in making their housing program “successful.
I cannot take advantage of their lack of integrity and get an extra $120 – because I have integrity.
Talk about Irony.
Reading a newspaper article about how the popularity of the provincial Liberal government has seemingly not been affected by all the questions about its integrity served to remind me that I wanted to comment on the lack of integrity of our provincial government.
Admittedly all our current political parties and most, if not all, politicians are “integrity challenged”, it is just that the Liberals are the party running our province giving them a public ability to display this lack of integrity.
Integrity: adherence to moral and ethical principles; honesty; freedom from corrupting influence or motive; uprightness; rectitude.
Integrity is not about being able to say “I/we have done nothing wrong”, it is about behaving in a consistent manner; one can behave one way here and another way there. Nor does one get to avoid or ignore reality just because it does not fit into your world view or political philosophy.
Behaving with integrity is the foundation on which government behaviour should be built. Sadly this is not the way current governments at any level behave.
This question of integrity comes to mind every time I hear the government advertisement about the rent subsidy program for families making $35,000 or less per year. $35,000 per year and you need a rent subsidy. $7300 per year and you do not need a rent subsidy – if you are on Income Assistance.
I concede that to a certain extent this is comparing apples and oranges but … for a government that acknowledges that the cost of renting is so high in the lower mainland that at an income of $35,000 a subsidy is needed, to claim that $375 a month is adequate for a person on Income Assistance to find shelter is duplicitous.
This behaviour lacks Integrity.
Another glaring example is that if you are on or eligible for Income Assistance and you deal with the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance you will receive $610 a month of which $375 is for shelter. If you have to spend $600 a month on rent (if you can find something habitable for that) and only have $10 to live on – it is your problem.
However should you go to a shelter and use the BC Housing outreach program to find housing you can get an additional rent subsidy up to $120 per month. At these levels of income the $120 has a huge impact on your quality of life, especially the quality of housing.
It gives an unfair competitive advantage in the competition to find housing to those who receive the extra $120, further marginalizing those on “just Income Assistance.” It also makes the outreach/shelter programs appear more successful than they really are – at the expense of the most vulnerable people.
This behaviour lacks Integrity.
I am considering writing a brochure on the existence of this subsidy and the steps required to obtain/qualify for this subsidy in order to level the playing field, promoting fairness and integrity.
Could I get this subsidy? It is a moot point because, as badly needed as the extra $120 maybe, the actions required in getting this subsidy would lack integrity.
The government is behaving without integrity, with a total lack of fairness and are “cheating” in making their housing program “successful.
I cannot take advantage of their lack of integrity and get an extra $120 – because I have integrity.
Talk about Irony.
... just does not get it!
Clearly, crystal clearly, Gordon Campbell just does not get it.
Watching the news on June 12th led to the inescapable conclusion that, blinded by his ideological blinders, Gordon Campbell just does not get it on homelessness and other important social issues. At least I certainly hope his actions stem from not getting it.
The good news is what having its wood going to China to help build homes for those left homeless by the earthquake could do for the forest industry. The really bad news was: there was Gordon Campbell leading the efforts to supply wood and workers to build housing for the homeless in China, while his government for the most part ignores the thousands homeless in BC.
Apparently if you are homeless in BC and you want to be housed by your provincial government you need to head to China and Sichuan province.
Gordon Campbell leaped into action to provide housing for thousands of homeless – in China. At the same time his Liberal government has its head stuck in the sand on homelessness and other pressing social issues in BC.
Could it be the use of the word province, as in Sichuan province, has left Premier Campbell beffuddled and confused?
Or is it the Gordon Campbell’s ideological blinders leave him unwilling or unable to perceive the earthquake of social issues facing BC, with the result he just does not get it?
Clearly, crystal clearly, Gordon Campbell just does not get it.
Watching the news on June 12th led to the inescapable conclusion that, blinded by his ideological blinders, Gordon Campbell just does not get it on homelessness and other important social issues. At least I certainly hope his actions stem from not getting it.
The good news is what having its wood going to China to help build homes for those left homeless by the earthquake could do for the forest industry. The really bad news was: there was Gordon Campbell leading the efforts to supply wood and workers to build housing for the homeless in China, while his government for the most part ignores the thousands homeless in BC.
Apparently if you are homeless in BC and you want to be housed by your provincial government you need to head to China and Sichuan province.
Gordon Campbell leaped into action to provide housing for thousands of homeless – in China. At the same time his Liberal government has its head stuck in the sand on homelessness and other pressing social issues in BC.
Could it be the use of the word province, as in Sichuan province, has left Premier Campbell beffuddled and confused?
Or is it the Gordon Campbell’s ideological blinders leave him unwilling or unable to perceive the earthquake of social issues facing BC, with the result he just does not get it?
R.I.P.
bureaucrat Hope slays
knowledge news Wellness unshared
Light illumes no more
The Advisor was the regional mental health and addictions advisory committee’s 12 page newsletter published and edited by a consumer for consumer and family education and empowerment.
June’s issue touched on Father’s Day, listening, had 2 pages devoted to relapse prevention, coping strategies, suicide, things to think about, ask a pharmacist, happenings around the region and listings of the services and support available in the communities of the region.
I hand it out as part of the support discussion at Wellness Recovery Action Plan groups; others ask about it if delivery is late; it was distributed around our communities so that those who needed it could find it and all copies were long gone before the next month’s publication was out.
It was a valuable resource and tool that provided, due to the hard work and volunteer efforts of the editor, benefits far outweighing the amazingly cheap $3,000 yearly cost for production of a monthly newsletter.
It died an ignoble death at the hands of a faceless, carelessly thoughtless bureaucrat who, with the stroke of a pen and a no, snuffed out the Light that was the Advisor.
We could well lose the bureaucrat unnoticed
The Advisor is a painful loss that will be missed.
bureaucrat Hope slays
knowledge news Wellness unshared
Light illumes no more
The Advisor was the regional mental health and addictions advisory committee’s 12 page newsletter published and edited by a consumer for consumer and family education and empowerment.
June’s issue touched on Father’s Day, listening, had 2 pages devoted to relapse prevention, coping strategies, suicide, things to think about, ask a pharmacist, happenings around the region and listings of the services and support available in the communities of the region.
I hand it out as part of the support discussion at Wellness Recovery Action Plan groups; others ask about it if delivery is late; it was distributed around our communities so that those who needed it could find it and all copies were long gone before the next month’s publication was out.
It was a valuable resource and tool that provided, due to the hard work and volunteer efforts of the editor, benefits far outweighing the amazingly cheap $3,000 yearly cost for production of a monthly newsletter.
It died an ignoble death at the hands of a faceless, carelessly thoughtless bureaucrat who, with the stroke of a pen and a no, snuffed out the Light that was the Advisor.
We could well lose the bureaucrat unnoticed
The Advisor is a painful loss that will be missed.
Poverty and homeless Pimp.
Reading Mr. Rushton’s poppycock of Tuesday June 3, 2008 about the people on the traffic islands with the begging signs was an experience containing incredible irony.
Irony abounds in the fact the homeless themselves distain these individuals with their signs seeking handouts because it re-enforces the prejudicial stereotyping of the homeless by the public, pundits and columnists.
It is also ironic that in rushing to make his sweeping and sophistic assertions, Mr. Rushton becomes the answer to his editor’s question with which he began his column.
Yes Ms. Editor, there are poverty (or homelessness) pimps out there; people who exploit the poor and homeless for their own economic ends and advantage, earning their thirty pieces of silver catering to the public’s uninformed view of the poor and homeless to fill their newspaper column space - without the need to think.
I do not suggest that Mr. Rushton pimps the poor and homeless to the public because he came down on the people with the signs. Knowing the story behind many of these individuals I too wanted to kick their asses out of there or stand there with a sign saying “Does not deserve your generosity”.
It is his broad, careless and misleading statements about how easy it is to find employment that, together with his apparent failure to apply any form of analytical thought process to these statements, render him a poverty (homelessness) pimp.
Try applying for a job when you are homeless and watch the employers reaction to that information – don’t call us we’ll call you. How does an employer willing to take the chance and hire the homeless contact the homeless person? Smoke signals? Jungle drums? Homeless and broke how do you manage personal hygiene, clean clothes etc to remain presentable enough to keep your job? With a job and thus unable to get to the Food Bank or the Salvation Army, is it Mr. Rushton’s belief that you pretty much starve for the three weeks until you get your first pay check?
Just how good a job of grunt work are you going to be doing on an empty stomach, at the end of the first week? Second week? Third week?
Jobs abound? Really? As I sit here I cannot think of any job that is available within the area I could walk to and from work. You are homeless, without transportation, living in Abbotsford a city where transit is of limited use – even if you could afford the $3 a day cost.
Here is an interesting problem that some Abbotsford citizens may already be facing and that more and more will face as gas prices continue to rise. You commute from Abbotsford to Vancouver daily. Lease or loan payments, insurance, repairs and maintenance and gas with its soaring prices – one may well find oneself spending more to get and from work than one is making as take home pay.
The job is there … or is it really there if it costs you more to commute to work than you make at work? A little conundrum that increasing numbers of commuters may face as gas spirals upward in cost.
Conundrums are what many homeless face in seeking employment.
Despite the baseless assertions to the contrary, finding employment for the poor and especially for the homeless is to run into barrier after barrier after barrier after barrier ….
I recently heard from someone who was on the verge of homelessness after a year of fruitless job searching having been repeatedly told she was “overqualified” for the job she was applying for. I know others, including myself, who have a stack of rejections on the grounds of being “overqualified”.
As for the woman seeking money for dog grooming tools, consider the following scenario. You’re poor and cannot afford new clothes; you have a job lined up but in order to meet the office dress code you need two pair of Khaki pants; so much for that job because you cannot get those pants - unless you can find someone of charitable consciousness to buy you those pants. This is not some impossible scenario – it happened to me.
When one is poor and/or homeless the statement “jobs abound” is often false and what abounds is multiple barriers, multiple layers of barriers, between employment and you, between housing and you.
The homeless derive no benefit from their homelessness. Benefits accrue to those who chose, by their behaviours and actions, to be poverty and homelessness pimps - a rather shameful irony.
Reading Mr. Rushton’s poppycock of Tuesday June 3, 2008 about the people on the traffic islands with the begging signs was an experience containing incredible irony.
Irony abounds in the fact the homeless themselves distain these individuals with their signs seeking handouts because it re-enforces the prejudicial stereotyping of the homeless by the public, pundits and columnists.
It is also ironic that in rushing to make his sweeping and sophistic assertions, Mr. Rushton becomes the answer to his editor’s question with which he began his column.
Yes Ms. Editor, there are poverty (or homelessness) pimps out there; people who exploit the poor and homeless for their own economic ends and advantage, earning their thirty pieces of silver catering to the public’s uninformed view of the poor and homeless to fill their newspaper column space - without the need to think.
I do not suggest that Mr. Rushton pimps the poor and homeless to the public because he came down on the people with the signs. Knowing the story behind many of these individuals I too wanted to kick their asses out of there or stand there with a sign saying “Does not deserve your generosity”.
It is his broad, careless and misleading statements about how easy it is to find employment that, together with his apparent failure to apply any form of analytical thought process to these statements, render him a poverty (homelessness) pimp.
Try applying for a job when you are homeless and watch the employers reaction to that information – don’t call us we’ll call you. How does an employer willing to take the chance and hire the homeless contact the homeless person? Smoke signals? Jungle drums? Homeless and broke how do you manage personal hygiene, clean clothes etc to remain presentable enough to keep your job? With a job and thus unable to get to the Food Bank or the Salvation Army, is it Mr. Rushton’s belief that you pretty much starve for the three weeks until you get your first pay check?
Just how good a job of grunt work are you going to be doing on an empty stomach, at the end of the first week? Second week? Third week?
Jobs abound? Really? As I sit here I cannot think of any job that is available within the area I could walk to and from work. You are homeless, without transportation, living in Abbotsford a city where transit is of limited use – even if you could afford the $3 a day cost.
Here is an interesting problem that some Abbotsford citizens may already be facing and that more and more will face as gas prices continue to rise. You commute from Abbotsford to Vancouver daily. Lease or loan payments, insurance, repairs and maintenance and gas with its soaring prices – one may well find oneself spending more to get and from work than one is making as take home pay.
The job is there … or is it really there if it costs you more to commute to work than you make at work? A little conundrum that increasing numbers of commuters may face as gas spirals upward in cost.
Conundrums are what many homeless face in seeking employment.
Despite the baseless assertions to the contrary, finding employment for the poor and especially for the homeless is to run into barrier after barrier after barrier after barrier ….
I recently heard from someone who was on the verge of homelessness after a year of fruitless job searching having been repeatedly told she was “overqualified” for the job she was applying for. I know others, including myself, who have a stack of rejections on the grounds of being “overqualified”.
As for the woman seeking money for dog grooming tools, consider the following scenario. You’re poor and cannot afford new clothes; you have a job lined up but in order to meet the office dress code you need two pair of Khaki pants; so much for that job because you cannot get those pants - unless you can find someone of charitable consciousness to buy you those pants. This is not some impossible scenario – it happened to me.
When one is poor and/or homeless the statement “jobs abound” is often false and what abounds is multiple barriers, multiple layers of barriers, between employment and you, between housing and you.
The homeless derive no benefit from their homelessness. Benefits accrue to those who chose, by their behaviours and actions, to be poverty and homelessness pimps - a rather shameful irony.
An Anonymous letter writer shares:
Below is a letter sent to me via www.homelessinabbotsford.com by Anonymous.
What the letter has to say is important as more and more citizens are finding themselves in Anonymous’s circumstances. It is also important because it paints a very different picture of who the homeless or those teetering on the edge of homelessness are, a very different picture than that most people carry in their minds.
I have included my comments in brackets in hopes the Anonymous writer visits and has an opportunity to read them and know she is not alone, there are far to many of us in similar circumstances who understand and who are suffering the same indifferent fate at the hands of the government and fellow citizens.
Since the letter was Anonymous and I could not ask permission to share it I have edited out any references I felt may contain clues to the writer. Otherwise it is included as written. I have highlighted the letter in blue to make it clear which is the letter contents and which are my comments.
Many people are a month or so away from homelessness and nothing will save them but a 'miracle'. I can testify personally to this after over a year of 24/7 job hunting in Abbotsford which yielded zero results. (I'm highly qualified and experienced in corporate communications and office administration and ran my own successful business for almost 8 years; too qualified, was the excuse trotted out if they bothered to respond at all, but not qualified enough for other things.
(I too have been told I am “over qualified”, an incredibly frustrating experience – especially when my having dealt with mental health issues makes them very nervous about hiring me for those positions I am qualified for.)
I, too, am staring homelessness in the face. I am trying to move to Vancouver (where I know no one) but where there are more job opportunities and I think possibly more support. Abbotsford, a closed society, is no place for the desperate. To say it's scary is an understatement.
I, for one, haven't a clue how to manage being homeless, in Abbotsford or elsewhere. I have a small income, enough to feed me and buy necessary toiletries, etc., but not enough for rent, hydro, phone, internet -- the necessities of life which allow you to look for work intelligently and to actually report for work, once hired, looking and acting like a professional. And you won't be allowed in a supermarket if you're dirty and stinking because you couldn't do laundry or bathe, so where do you turn ...
(I have repeatedly posed those types of questions to the Ministry (and minister) of Employment and Income Assistance and gotten no intelligent answers. Perhaps a more accurate name for the Ministry would be – Employment Barriers and Inadequate Income Assistance)
I certainly cannot be only one in THAT predicament, so I think words of wisdom on how to be 'successfully' homeless would be well received by many.
(You definitely are not alone in your situation as I have met many people suffering the same government indifference and lack of help.)
The ranks of the homeless are going to swell exponentially. It is unfortunate that so many are mental patients and/or addicted to drugs or alcohol, because they have little to no hope and make the whole situation even more terrifying for those of us who are not.
(While they may make the possibility of homelessness more terrifying for you, they are also victims of lack of care by their country and government – and from their fellow citizens for not demanding that the government intelligently and with will and intent address homelessness, mental health and addiction. It has been demonstrated in other very similar jurisdictions (Portland and Seattle) that all that is required to help the addicted and mentally ill is realistic and intelligent decisions. It is the waste of human lives and the current immense waste of government funds, funds that could build the system of care needed to deal with these social ills, that has me advocating for these people (many of who are friends).
NOTE: any system that has the capacity to help those most in need will have the capacity to help people in less dire circumstances.
The rest, those of us who would like to work and live decently, need somehow to band together and cooperate with each other, watching each other's backs, so to speak, and forming a mini-community somehow, each bringing something to the table others lack, and perhaps somehow getting people in the group working and living in decent housing. Just a thought and probably an impossibility.
(Nothing is impossible has to be ones mantra if you are going to bring about positive change. This is a free country, by definition we can bring about change. We just need more sane behaviour from people. If you are complaining about government all the time why keep voting for the same old parties? Repeating the same action over and over hoping for a different outcome is the AA definition of insanity. People can choose who ever they want to represent them. Maybe it is time that rather than stick with the same old choices citizens banded together to get other independent people to run for office and /or to exercise their right to “write in” whoever they want to represent them.)
(If you feel such a group of people looking for work is needed to cover each others backs and help each other – create it. Co-operative ventures have a long and distinguished history in Canada.)
There would be only opposition from the powers that be in Abbotsford however, so better to find out what's available in more progressive cities like Vancouver or Kamloops.
(While I agree that Abbotsford is hide bound and continues to behave as though it were a small country town, remember that the provincial government is miserably failing to meet its Duty of Care to those citizens finding themselves in your circumstances and in need of Assistance – not more and higher Barriers. Remember that in November you, all the citizens of Abbotsford will have your chance to send the current council home (taking away their part-time salaries that are higher than many citizens earn full time) and replacing them with competent people with caring and vision for all citizens and Abbotsford’s future)
(Whatever you do, don’t give up and let them win – remember the best revenge is a life well lived.)
Below is a letter sent to me via www.homelessinabbotsford.com by Anonymous.
What the letter has to say is important as more and more citizens are finding themselves in Anonymous’s circumstances. It is also important because it paints a very different picture of who the homeless or those teetering on the edge of homelessness are, a very different picture than that most people carry in their minds.
I have included my comments in brackets in hopes the Anonymous writer visits and has an opportunity to read them and know she is not alone, there are far to many of us in similar circumstances who understand and who are suffering the same indifferent fate at the hands of the government and fellow citizens.
Since the letter was Anonymous and I could not ask permission to share it I have edited out any references I felt may contain clues to the writer. Otherwise it is included as written. I have highlighted the letter in blue to make it clear which is the letter contents and which are my comments.
Many people are a month or so away from homelessness and nothing will save them but a 'miracle'. I can testify personally to this after over a year of 24/7 job hunting in Abbotsford which yielded zero results. (I'm highly qualified and experienced in corporate communications and office administration and ran my own successful business for almost 8 years; too qualified, was the excuse trotted out if they bothered to respond at all, but not qualified enough for other things.
(I too have been told I am “over qualified”, an incredibly frustrating experience – especially when my having dealt with mental health issues makes them very nervous about hiring me for those positions I am qualified for.)
I, too, am staring homelessness in the face. I am trying to move to Vancouver (where I know no one) but where there are more job opportunities and I think possibly more support. Abbotsford, a closed society, is no place for the desperate. To say it's scary is an understatement.
I, for one, haven't a clue how to manage being homeless, in Abbotsford or elsewhere. I have a small income, enough to feed me and buy necessary toiletries, etc., but not enough for rent, hydro, phone, internet -- the necessities of life which allow you to look for work intelligently and to actually report for work, once hired, looking and acting like a professional. And you won't be allowed in a supermarket if you're dirty and stinking because you couldn't do laundry or bathe, so where do you turn ...
(I have repeatedly posed those types of questions to the Ministry (and minister) of Employment and Income Assistance and gotten no intelligent answers. Perhaps a more accurate name for the Ministry would be – Employment Barriers and Inadequate Income Assistance)
I certainly cannot be only one in THAT predicament, so I think words of wisdom on how to be 'successfully' homeless would be well received by many.
(You definitely are not alone in your situation as I have met many people suffering the same government indifference and lack of help.)
The ranks of the homeless are going to swell exponentially. It is unfortunate that so many are mental patients and/or addicted to drugs or alcohol, because they have little to no hope and make the whole situation even more terrifying for those of us who are not.
(While they may make the possibility of homelessness more terrifying for you, they are also victims of lack of care by their country and government – and from their fellow citizens for not demanding that the government intelligently and with will and intent address homelessness, mental health and addiction. It has been demonstrated in other very similar jurisdictions (Portland and Seattle) that all that is required to help the addicted and mentally ill is realistic and intelligent decisions. It is the waste of human lives and the current immense waste of government funds, funds that could build the system of care needed to deal with these social ills, that has me advocating for these people (many of who are friends).
NOTE: any system that has the capacity to help those most in need will have the capacity to help people in less dire circumstances.
The rest, those of us who would like to work and live decently, need somehow to band together and cooperate with each other, watching each other's backs, so to speak, and forming a mini-community somehow, each bringing something to the table others lack, and perhaps somehow getting people in the group working and living in decent housing. Just a thought and probably an impossibility.
(Nothing is impossible has to be ones mantra if you are going to bring about positive change. This is a free country, by definition we can bring about change. We just need more sane behaviour from people. If you are complaining about government all the time why keep voting for the same old parties? Repeating the same action over and over hoping for a different outcome is the AA definition of insanity. People can choose who ever they want to represent them. Maybe it is time that rather than stick with the same old choices citizens banded together to get other independent people to run for office and /or to exercise their right to “write in” whoever they want to represent them.)
(If you feel such a group of people looking for work is needed to cover each others backs and help each other – create it. Co-operative ventures have a long and distinguished history in Canada.)
There would be only opposition from the powers that be in Abbotsford however, so better to find out what's available in more progressive cities like Vancouver or Kamloops.
(While I agree that Abbotsford is hide bound and continues to behave as though it were a small country town, remember that the provincial government is miserably failing to meet its Duty of Care to those citizens finding themselves in your circumstances and in need of Assistance – not more and higher Barriers. Remember that in November you, all the citizens of Abbotsford will have your chance to send the current council home (taking away their part-time salaries that are higher than many citizens earn full time) and replacing them with competent people with caring and vision for all citizens and Abbotsford’s future)
(Whatever you do, don’t give up and let them win – remember the best revenge is a life well lived.)
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