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.

0 comments Published Thursday, August 28, 2008 by James W Breckenridge.

Threats of a federal election issued.

It was not necessary for Mr. Harper and his Conservatives to run a series of advertisements to highlight their ignorance of Canada and what it is to be Canadian.

Through his actions and behaviours Stephen Harper has demonstrated that he does not get, does not understand Canada and what it is to be Canadian.

I am of course referring to the Dion does not get BC radio ads.

Having lived the first twenty years of my life in southern Ontario and the last twenty years in Abbotsford BC with stops in Saskatoon and Edmonton in-between I know that the only way to understand a city or province is through years of living there.

This is why we elect local citizens to be our MP’s and represent us in Ottawa; so they can make sure our needs, thoughts and wants are made clear to the party leader, other members of the caucus and to parliament.

Unfortunately parliament appears to have become a dictatorship run out of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Perhaps this tyranny explains why local MP Ed Fast gives you the address of who you need to write to as opposed to forcefully and loudly carrying the flag for Abbotsford and his constituents.

With municipal elections scheduled across BC this fall one would expect all BC MP’s to be demanding Stephen Harper not call an unnecessary election, an election Canadians don’t want, that would interfere with the debate of important local issues and the local election process. All we hear is silence.

With all the federal (and provincial) responsibilities downloaded onto cities without funds to pay for them; with the federal government abandoning issues such as homelessness and affordable housing, leaving the cities to deal with the fallout and costs; with the federal Conservative government insisting on seeing what it wants to see and ignoring reality on so many social issues, the municipal elections are of vital importance to local citizens (and their pocketbooks).

Local elections take place on a fixed schedule. Calling an unneeded federal election that will interfere with these local elections for no better reason than political and personal self-aggrandizement shows disrespect and disdain for the citizens of BC.

It would seem that if anyone does not get BC, does not get Canada and what it means to be Canadian, it is Stephen Harper.

0 comments Published Tuesday, August 26, 2008 by James W Breckenridge.

Community is about Sharing, participation, and Fellowship.

Reading the letters to the editor from Andrea Mikulan and others over recent weeks serves to explain the city’s tagline “city in the country” as these letters underline the fact that while Abbotsford is a city, it is not a community.

A quick check of a dictionary shows that community is not just about a group of people having common interests it also involves/requires sharing, participation, and fellowship.

Sharing, participation and fellowship. Community is not about every citizen having an account and all these accounts balancing out so that what you put in is exactly what you get out. Trying to achieve such a balance is not only unrealistic, it is impossible.

Community is about compromise, about meeting the important needs of people or groups of people within the community. Sharing, participation and fellowship.

Are our Sikh citizens an important part of the community of Abbotsford? Is this crematorium important to that Sikh sub-community? Is there a reason they are seeking to build in/on cemetery Land? (My understanding is that a tenet of their faith requires that such a crematorium be built on cemetery land.)

If you (we) answer yes to these questions, then as a Community Abbotsford must facilitate the process of bringing the crematorium into being and not get bogged down in beguiling, irrelevant arguments.

What do I mean by beguiling, irrelevant arguments? Arguments such as:

“… and have never expected any public funds to meet our private needs.” is an erroneous statement. One of the reasons to get together in a city is to spend public funds on meeting private needs for roads, water and sewage systems, swimming pools, schools etc.

Or perhaps Ms. Mikulan’s point is that with only 20% (Sikh) vs. 80% (non-Sikh) there is not a large enough private need, enough people with a private need for a crematorium for this private need to be become or be considered a public need?

Now there is a dangerous precedent since that logic leads to a quagmire. Following that train of thought since I voted No to Plan A, actively campaigned against Plan A and will never use any of the Plan A facilities I should be exempt from any tax levy to pay for Plan A. Then there are the schools I have never used, the baseball and soccer fields I have never used, the Friendship Garden I will never use and so on and so on and so on ….

“… would negate the principle of separation of church and state, …” I had not realized that this proposal would make the Sikh faith the official religion of Abbotsford and that our laws would now be based on the Sikh faith. The principle or separation refers to preserving the secularity of government and freedom of religious exercise, not to forbidding transactions between government and religious institutions.

Following the logic behind Ms Mikulan’s separation of church and state argument all the churches in Abbotsford would have to relocate in some other jurisdiction since transactions such as property taxes, water and sewage fees etc. would be prohibited. While an interesting concept it is an irrelevant argument.

“… compete head to head with the private funerary businesses …” Yes, so what? We have long, proud tradition in Canada of forming co-operatives to deliver services at reasonable rates. I draw the reader’s attention to our Health Care system, particularly what happened with the private health facility that was opened last year in Vancouver.

“… attract private enterprise …” This is really reaching for straws. Faced with the reputation and behaviours of Abbotsford city hall and council I have grave doubts that the fact the city transferred a piece of the only current property in Abbotsford upon which the crematorium could be built to the Sikh community to build on would ever be a consideration on which a decision would be made on whether or not to locate in Abbotsford would be made.

“ … purchase suitably zoned land, raise the funds and build it.” We are running out of burial plots because of a lack of any other “suitably zoned land”. Perhaps we should suggest they purchase a magic lamp and use the genie to solve this dilemma?

The Sikh community has raised the money to build the crematorium and as I understand it have changed the original proposal so that they will now form a society to be responsible for operations and any losses.

The Abbotsford Ratepayers have suggested that the Sikh community purchase land and have the city turn it into a cemetery. Now assuming that this could (at least in theory) be done in an acceptable time frame this seems pretty reasonable … except for the “…city turn it into a cemetery.” requirement.

As those who have dealt with city hall and council without benefit of friends in the right place can tell you the words reasonable and reasonable time frames have little or nothing to do with city hall and council. If you have any doubts about this I refer you to the people attempting to build a Sandman Inn in Abbotsford.

I can well understand why the Sikh community would prefer the “bird in hand” land of the existing cemetery rather than chance dealing with city hall and council on rezoning and creation of a new cemetery.

This reluctance to rely on the mayor or councillors is made even more understandable by their failure to provide what is most needed on what has become a divisive matter in our city – leadership. Although this lack is not a surprise given the lack of leadership on poverty, hunger, homelessness, mentally illness, addiction and other pressing issues in Abbotsford by council. Indeed the mayor and council’s main goal in dealing with the crematorium issue appears to be to avoid having to stand up and be counted.

The crematorium is important to the Sikh community; the Sikh community is an important part of the community that is (or at least should be) Abbotsford; therefore the crematorium is (or at least should be) important to the Community of Abbotsford.

For our COMMUNITY we must facilitate bringing into being the crematorium. If the only way to achieve this goal in a timely manner is through the use of land in Hazelwood Cemetery, then that is what should, must be done.

0 comments Published Sunday, August 24, 2008 by James W Breckenridge.

THE Rai$e$ to $enior BC bureaucrat$.

It isn’t that the government sought to conceal the obscene pay raises for senior bureaucrats by burying the announcement in not just a Friday press release, but a Friday press release obscured by the opening of the Beijing Olympics that is troubling. Rather it is that the government is so out of touch with the reality of the lives and situations of the vast majority of citizens in the province, that the government thought they could slip past taxpayers a 43% $105,000 increase without it being noticed and the government called to task for the extravagance of the raises.

The government’s rationalization of these inexcusable wages is that they need to pay these ridiculous wage levels to keep or attract the kind of people they need.

To begin evaluating this rationalization of the need for raises that exceed the yearly income of the vast majority of the taxpayers out of whose pockets these raises will be paid, I consulted a dictionary for the definition of bureaucrat and bureaucracy.

Bureaucrat: an official of a bureaucracy (administration characterized by many bureaus, administrators, petty officials, excessive red tape and routine); an official who works by fixed routine without exercising intelligent judgment.; an official who is rigidly devoted to the details of administrative procedure;

What is it about these individuals that cause them to be so valued by their political masters? What attributes are required by these positions and the people who fill them?

Obviously one needs, at least on paper, to be qualified to hold a position at this level of government service.

Just as obviously one needs to be able to navigate and manipulate the bureaucracy if one is to be able to cause the bureaucracy to carry out their political masters wishes.

An abundant number of people are capable of meeting these requirements. There must be further requirements that drastically reduce the pool of candidates to the select few numbers the government cited as the reason it is necessary to pay and to offer these exorbitant wage levels.

So what attributes do politicians require in the people filling these positions that so limit the talent pool? What sort of factor would be of importance to a politician for an employee in these positions?

Non-competence. It is not that politicians, government and bureaucracy require incompetence. Rather the need is simply for candidates to not be competent.

Competent people tend to focus on accomplishing what the stated purpose or goal is, rather than on pursuing policies that either would not accomplish or are contrary to accomplishing the stated purpose or goal. Within the labyrinth bureaucracy of government competent people would remain hidden until their actions in successfully accomplishing the stated purpose or goal attracted media or other unwanted attention.

Faced with a demonstrated method of actually accomplishing the stated goals the politicians would be forced to abandon their policies in favour of policies that work, even if not in agreement with their ideological world view. Obviously this would be an intolerable position for politicians to find themselves in.

Thus it is that politicians want to avoid having competent people working for government. This desire is strengthened by the fact that competent people tend to drive out incompetence and inspire people around them to aspire to competence. While frustration with the bureaucratic barriers to accomplishing goals would drive many competent people out of government service, a stubborn few would remain until they succeeded.

Then, like a plague, competent people would infect the bureaucracy with competence giving rise to a government service that accomplishes the stated purpose or goals irrespective or in spite of politicians and their ideological faith.

This desire to not have any competent people in government service limits the number of qualified people from which to draw in filling high level positions.

Finally, what is it politicians want to use the government bureaucracy to accomplish? The implementation of the policies derived from and/or dictated by their political ideology – no matter how far this ideological world view is from reality and without consideration of the actual effect these actions will have on citizens who live in the real world.

This dichotomy between the ideological world view and the real world, between what is claimed the outcome will be and the real effect of the policy choices, between the way the politicians choose to view and/or interpret the outcomes of their actions and the actual consequences the outcomes have upon people give rise to a built in conflict between supporting the politicians and their ideological tainted perceptions versus delivering to the politicians the facts that may force politicians to see things as they truly are.

Politicians want bureaucrats that do as they are told and who don’t confuse their political masters by introducing reality into their ideological fantasy world. This need is what has given rise to the political “science” idea of the need for a civil service that unthinkingly, obliviously carries out the dictates of whomever is their political masters, whatever their ideological world view.

The requirement for mindless obedience, providing spin control and ignoring what the actual consequences will be or are serves to narrow the field of possible candidates for these positions down to a select few.

For politicians seeking to preserve their ideology and ideological world views rather than face the real world and deal with the issues and problems in a thoughtful, rational and effective manner this type of bureaucrat is a necessity and worth every penny the politicians must pay as wages.

The CONCLUSION this analysis leads one to draw is that BC’s Liberal government (and by inference all levels of government across Canada) is correct. Given the very limited pool of people who meet the politician’s requirements and that government bodies all across Canada are competing for people from this very limited pool, high and extreme levels of wages are required to hire these bureaucrats.

The QUESTION we should really be asking is whether these are the types of bureaucrats and politicians we want in and running our government(s). Or should we be looking for competence, integrity and residence in the real world from our politicians and bureaucrats.

0 comments Published Sunday, August 17, 2008 by James W Breckenridge.

Canadian Olympic athletes deserve better.

Canadians do not deserve the athletes they have representing them at the Beijing Olympics.

Anchors, reporters, (so called) sports reporters and far too many other Canadians should hang their heads and apologize for the disparaging statements and attitude heaped on our athletes during the first week of competition.

Watching the cloying behaviour of these same anchors, reporters, sports reporters and other fair-weather Canadians when the terrific performances being turned in by Canadian athletes finally broke through to the podium clearly demonstrated how warped our values have become.

While they were not winning medals our athletes were turning in personal bests and setting new Canadian records. What more can we ask of our athletes, indeed of anyone, than that they perform to the best of their abilities?

People complain about “the kids today” but what life lessons are we teaching them with this “it only counts if you win a medal” attitude?

I salute those who have won medals; it is great to see all their hard work and sacrifice rewarded.

I hail those who pursued their dreams to Beijing, who realistically had no chance of winning a medal and still turned in a personal best performance.

That is character. That is performance.

0 comments Published Sunday, August 10, 2008 by James W Breckenridge.

To get it done - simply do it.

The young woman was sitting there obviously in a great deal of distress, profound pain and in need of help.

The distress and pain were so pronounced that it evoked an act of kindness out of an acquaintance of mine. The only adequate description of seeing this act is “it boggled my mind”. He also stated that something needed to be done.

Her behaviour/situation was brought to the attention of those who should be helping her … and resulted in excuses as to why they weren’t helping.

Leaving the realm of excuses I found the young woman huddled with arms wrapped around herself under a tree. Mr. L, a homeless gentleman residing in his vehicle, was standing there regarding her.

I approached her quietly and spoke with her gently and after a few minutes she uncurled and stood up. With quiet words Mr. L and I walked with her to his vehicle and drove her to MSA Hospital.

Escorting her into emergency we supported and advocated for her through the admissions process. The psychiatric evaluation nurse and the woman doctor on duty were excellent, but the process, for someone in her shape, was far too long and complicated.

We spent 3 hours helping and sitting with her before she was in the care of a nurse. In fact it took so long Mr. L and myself were beginning to worry that perhaps the delay was due to the psychiatric evaluation nurse searching for butterfly nets and straight jackets for the pair of us. We had to stay with her in order that she could stay and get the help needed.

How many others are left suffering great distress and profound pain?

Getting help should not depend on random chance putting someone in need in the path of two strangers who are willing to spend the hours and effort needed to get them help.

This is not the first time I have experienced politicians, government, agencies, organizations or people delivering a litany of excuses for their failure to act to help those in dire need.

It is so normal a behaviour I can remember how surprising and above all helpful it was when, at a Communitas program I was a client of, I was told that something needed was not part of the program – but let us figure out how to get it done - and it did get done.

The issues, the problems that are part of addressing homelessness, mental illness, addiction and poverty are complex and lack nice neat easy solutions. Nobody can guarantee success in addressing these issues.

I can guarantee failure as long as it is acceptable to come up with excuses for why something is not being done. Benjamin Franklin pointed out that “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

As Mr. L. and I demonstrated you can accomplish something or make excuses. To quote Stephen Dooley, Jr. “A man who wants to do something will find a way; a man who doesn't will find an excuse.”

It is time we stop making excuses, stop accepting excuses and find ways to do what needs be done.

0 comments Published Wednesday, August 06, 2008 by James W Breckenridge.

Off-the-Shelf homeless housing?

I had a coffee in one hand and a fresh baked cookie in the other when a homeless friend stuffed a folded sheet of paper in my shirt pocket with a cryptic comment about retirement homes.

Emptying my pockets later at my habitation I found and unfolded the sheet, which turned out to be a page of ready-to-assemble wood storage and recreational building kits from a home improvement store.

Some were pretty spiffy looking and given the cost of housing these days, extremely attractive in price. Which may well explain the warning “before finalizing your purchase, always check with your local building code official for any requirements”.

With my friend currently residing in a tent under a bridge, I can certainly understand the buildings attraction for him. Spacious 8 X 10 foot floor space – with a floor yet – space to stand up, luxurious accommodation compared to his tent.

He raises an interesting point, or is that an interesting idea, to ponder.

We have hundreds of homeless currently on the streets of our cities, with more people becoming homeless as time passes. We have no housing, make that no housing affordable to the homeless and creating the needed affordable housing will take years once (or if?) we ever begin to address the growing need for housing people can afford.

We have decommissioned schools surrounded by open playing fields. What about putting up a community, a “subdivision” as it were, of ready-to-assemble kit buildings? The school building would provide washrooms, bathing facilities and lockers for safe storage of belongings.

The classrooms and offices would provide space that could be used for a wide variety of purposes by a wide variety of organizations and government agencies.

I acknowledge there would be problems, but I point out that our current situation is full of a growing number of problems.

It is an interesting idea, hearkening back to the soup lines and shanty towns that sprung up in city parks in the Great Depression.

I know many will not find this an interesting idea or think it has any value or should be considered. They can easily remove it from consideration by advancing good, practical, workable ideas.

Without practical, workable ideas we are going to fall back to soup lines and shanty towns in our parks and open spaces even though one would have thought we would have come up with better ideas and ways of addressing poverty and housing in the seventy years since then.

0 comments Published Sunday, August 03, 2008 by James W Breckenridge.

Keeping it surreal.

The other day I recieved a reminder of just how subtle the balance of ones mental health and recovery can be.

I was giving an acquaintance a ride. As we were making our way to the car the conversation turned to mental disabilities and he asked about my personal mental health challenges.

It turned out he has a friend who also has to deal with agoraphobia and I was regaled with stories about his friend’s trials and tribulations. I could certainly relate to his friend’s challenges. Unfortunately every attempt to change the subject failed and it was a relief to drop my passenger off.

I breathed a sigh of relief and drove away.

Waking the next morning revealed that there is a certain amount of truth in Clare Booth Luce’s “No good deed goes unpunished” and I had not gotten away scot-free from my good deed providing a ride.

All I wanted to do was pull the covers over my head and stay safe and sound behind my locked front door.

This was not really a head space I wanted to revisit. At that earlier point in time of my life my phone ringing or someone knocking on my front door had me cowering, shaking and frozen in place in a panic attack. People talking outside the front door had my freezing, trembling and praying they would not knock. My front door became a barrier I could not pass beyond.

As I said, not a situation I have any interest or desire in returning to.

Fortunately I do have an interest and desire to practice the needed mental hygiene to stay in recovery. This is why I have a WRAP, a Wellness Recovery Action Plan.

Thus, when I awoke in that bad head space and mired in a negative/unhealthy mind set I did not pull the covers over my head and descend into anxiety, panic and agoraphobic behaviours. Instead I recognized what was happening and reached into my Wellness Toolbox for the mental health tools I needed to work through this … black, dark crap – and recovery my mental balance/health.

It was a long, uncomfortable 2 – 3 days and I spent a lot more time than usual meditating, but in the end I succeeded in letting it all go and finding a place of serenity.

I speak of recovery not of cure because, as this incident served to remind me, mental health (or addiction recovery) can be lost or disturbed unexpectedly and by events beyond one’s control, events that seem innocuous.
Being in a recovery mindset rather than “I am fine, I am cured” mindset lets one recognize and react appropriately before you find yourself not fine and in your illness or addiction again. I facilitate WRAP groups to share the plan that has made and continues to make such a difference in my life and which I feel is a plan, a tool, everyone who has need of it should have in their lives.

One cautionary note to keep in mind should you find yourself in the situation my acquaintance found himself in – DON’T start in on horror tales. They can have unintended negative effects on the listener.

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