Category Archives: Homeless

Homeless, Issues, Municipal

Homeless Left Wondering

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Considering that City Council’s answer to the questions “If not Now, When? If not Here, Where?” posed to Council at the public hearing on the ACS 20 bed Housing First proposal was, stripped to its bare bones, “Never, unless forced! Then – ADBA! [Any District But Abbotsford] it is no surprise the homeless find themselves wondering:

 

Having 1) ensured there is nowhere for the homeless to go, other than somewhere else on the streets of Abbotsford; 2) ensured their prey cannot escape them by transitioning off the streets using the proven housing first approach; 3) confirmed their willingness to act with total irrationality with respect to the homeless and the issue of homelessness……..

……..how long can it be before City Council returns to chasing the homeless around Abbotsford, ignoring the fact that more than a decade of experience demonstrates that this approach accomplishes nothing other than allowing the problem to worsen…….

……. and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around…….

…….Abbotsford. Ad nauseam.

Pool betting is that the City will welcome the return of the Wild Hunt before March 1, 2014.

Pool betting also favours the gentleman who relocated his camp in order to secure first in line status in case Council decided to pursue services and housing based on best practices that have been demonstrated to be effective and financially prudent being the first victim of a renewed Hunt.

Hmm? You don’t suppose that those squandering spendthrifts who voted NO did so because they were unable to vote for a course of action that was ‘financially prudent’?

Be that as it may, pool betting is that this individual is at the top of council’s new hit list since the location of his camp is a pointed reminder of yet another ‘Folly’ by Abbotsford civic misgovernment.

Are the homeless correct? Is the course indicated by the betting in the Pool correct? Will Abbotsford’s Mayor and City Council add to Abbotsford national and international reputation for pointless, reprobate, simpleminded behaviour by resuming the City’s Crusade against the homeless?

 

 

 

Of course the question may well become moot, should Pivot seek and secure an injunction against the City starting a new Crusade against the homeless until the court rules on the question as to whether the 2009 ruling by the BC Court of Appeals, that the homeless have a right to camp in a City’s parks if the City is not  making sufficient effort to provide affordable housing the homeless can access, applies to the current state of affairs – vis-à-vis the homeless – in Abbotsford.

Given City Council’s demonstration at the February 17, 2014 council meeting that, not only is the City not acting to provide affordable, accessible housing but, the city is actively preventing such housing from being built…….

…….none should be surprised if the court issues an injunction preventing the city putting the health and lives of the homeless at risk by chasing them around Abbotsford. Nor should anyone be surprised if the court, in light of council’s behaviour, upholds the right of the homeless to camp in any of Abbotsford’s parks and not be harassed by the City or its APD.

So that, while there may be no homeless housed in their Backyards, there may well be homeless housed in camps in City Parks.

A situation that potentially will motivate mayor and council to abandon their irrational behaviour.

Homeless, Issues, Municipal, Politics

Abbotsford’s Ethical, Spiritual D-day

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Understanding, Choosing, Wisdom.

Our lives, our society, are the sum result of all the choices we make, both consciously and unconsciously. In control of the process of choosing, lies control of all aspects of our lives.

Positive control of the process of choosing requires choosing wisely; choosing wisely requires understanding. Without understand and wisdom, chance is left in control of our future.

On Monday February 3, 2014 Abbotsford City Council will decide whether Abbotsford Community Services can build the First Stage Housing they have proposed to use to help the homeless, those faced with mental health and/or substance use challenges, to begin the process of recovery.

Housing that would start to answer the question council’s decades old  policy of chasing the homeless  endlessly around Abbotsford has ignored – “Where else can they go?”.

Housing First is a model of recovery recognized by psychiatric professionals as an alternative approach to the traditional approaches to treatment; an approach pioneered in the 1990’s by Sam Tsemberis [a faculty member of the Department of Psychiatry of the New York University School of Medicine] and the Pathways to Housing organization in New York City.

The results achieved using Housing First have resulted in it being recognized as a ‘best practice’ for governments and service-agencies in their fight to end chronic homelessness; have resulted in the use of Housing First by governments and organizations in countries around the world, including Canadian cities such as Calgary, where Housing First is part of Calgary’s plan to address and end homelessness.

The mistake often made about Housing First as a result of its first priority being to provide housing, is that Housing First is not about abstinence. However, in understanding the Housing First approach one understands Housing First is about dealing with a person’s substance use and/or mental health challenges – after housing them. It is an approach that has proven to get people into treatment faster than the traditional approaches do.

An outcome that reminds us that, when addressing homelessness, mental illness and substance use, we need to remember that People are at the center of the process and when People are central to anything, it is a given that outcomes will have a large iffy [full of unresolved points or questions] factor.

But these are just facts, and while facts are important to choosing wisely, a wise choice also requires understanding and awareness of what other, less obvious or hidden decisions will be included in the choice(s) made.

Whether the City of Abbotsford and the APD step out of the 19th century and into the 21st century; whether a start is made on addressing chronic homelessness, mental illness and substance use on Abbotsford’s streets, are not the only decisions that will be made by Abbotsford City Council in their Yea or Nay on the ACS housing proposal..

Council’s Yea or Nay on the ACS proposal will decide – and declare to the world – something far more fundamental and important: What type of community Abbotsford chooses to be.

Not the type of City Abbotsford proclaims itself to be.

But the type of City revealed in the actions and behaviours of Abbotsford; for it is actions and behaviours, not words, that true colours are shown.

Will City Council choose for Abbotsford to set out to become, in the reality of deeds, the City that Abbotsford unfoundedly claims to be?

Or will City Council choose to continue to be the City its behaviour, such as the use of chicken manure as a poor man’s biological weapon against its mentally ill and homeless citizens, declared Abbotsford to be to fellow Canadians and the World.

“You can speak with spiritual eloquence, pray in public, and maintain a holy appearance… but it is your behaviour that will reveal your true character.” 

Steve Maraboli, Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

Addiction, behaviour, Homeless

High Barrier Shelter?

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I suppose that for individuals who live to inflict themselves on others it is a high barrier shelter.

Although, when I was homeless on the streets of Abbotsford and circumstances beyond my control made a night at the shelter unavoidable, I never found the standards of behaviour required of those guesting at the shelter onerous. But then I accept responsibility for my behaviour towards others.

I.        Non-prescription drugs and alcohol are not allowed on the premises.

II.        You cannot assault, threaten, abuse or infringe on the personal space of clients or staff.

III.        You need to take a shower.

I still don’t find the requirement to show basic consideration for those you are sharing the shelter space with either onerous or unreasonable.

Although doing away with the requirement that clients shower would save staff considerable hassle. In light of the number of requests clients make to staff about having others in the shelter shower and wash their clothing and the effort and time it takes for staff to get individuals to shower and wash their clothing, doing away with the showering requirement would be a relief. But doing away with the requirement to shower would inflict unfair tribulation on those in the shelter who choose to practice basic hygiene.

The two outbreaks of violence I have witnessed in the shelter, one were staff was physically attacked and the other where the building was vandalized, resulted from staff requesting that the attackers shower; requests made in response to complaints and requests of others in the shelter.

While being required to shower if you want to stay at the shelter is apparently considered by some to be an onerous requirement that presents a High Barrier to using the shelter, showering is about the health and comfort of ALL those using the shelter.

I am not sure what you have when people can party, assault, threaten, be odorous to the point others are gagging and make life miserable for all the others sharing the space……but I can tell you do you do not have a shelter.

x^3+y^3+z^3-3xyz-(x+y+z)(x^2+y^2+z^2-yz-zx-xy) = ?

“….the service providers who were temporarily at Jubilee Park Saturday…

What possible reason could there be for the service providers to be in Jubilee Park on what is normally a day off? Could it possibly be that they were there to help the protesters who had been ordered by the court to leave?

How dare they focus on helping the protesters they came in on a Saturday to help and suggest to non-protesters that they do what every other person seeking services does, go down Gladys to the Centre of Hope, enter the reception area, speak to the receptionist about the services they need, then sit down and wait their turn.

(4!+8)/4 + (2+3*4)^2 – 3^4 + (9+10)(15-21) + 7(17-15) = ?

Would those poor souls who are not being given access to their belongings be those who stated they wanted to stay at the shelter after they left Jubilee and asked for help getting their belongings packed and stored in the storage provided to those staying at the shelter?

Are we speaking of those little fibbers who said they wanted to stay at the shelter and who, once their belongings were packed, transported and stored in the storage provided for shelter clients – lost all interest in staying at the shelter?

An enquiry of shelter staff revealed that none of the shelter staff has refused these poor, unfortunate cozeners access to their belongings. Indeed shelter staff would be happy to reunite these rascals with their belongings and gain the room those belongings occupy for the belongings of individuals who are accessing the shelter and services.

Of course, given that the storage is provided for those staying in the shelter, the times when access is provided to items stored in the shelter storage are arranged to serve those staying in the shelter.

Should someone not staying at the shelter pop in during the day and demand access to their belongings they will be informed – as everyone is – that they need to speak to shelter staff. Shelter staff are, not surprisingly, available during the hours the shelter is operating.

What a concept, access hours to the storage provided for the belongings of those staying in  the shelter that are based on shelter hours so anyone staying in the shelter can access their belongings on a daily basis if needed.

E = mc^2

In speaking of not finding it onerous when I was homeless and forced to use the shelter I must acknowledge the significant benefit I have in dealing with people as a result of having a mother who drilled manners and consideration for others into her children. The same good manners and thoughtfulness that comes from being sat down during the Christmas holidays as a child and writing thank you letters for presents received [letters, not little thank you cards] has provided me with friends and others who are not only willing, but have stepped up, to help me not just survive but to thrive.

behaviour, Homeless, Issues, Municipal, Politics, This is so Stupid

Fear? Or Business as Usual Dumb?

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What is City Council so afraid of being revealed during the court proceedings scheduled to start Monday – four short days from today – that they were about to send in their armed officers, a police force referred to by Justice Kathleen Ker as “a place that time forgot“, to clear the park and avoid having to face a judge on Monday?

Now I do not claim that moving into the parking lot and erecting a 8ft high wooden fence is anything but…….Dumb. But anyone who knows Barry Shantz does not expect strategic thinking. Demands, shouting, aggression, a nobody else matters attitude, disruptive behaviour and provocation – that is what you expect.

As to whoever put up the wooden fence…..with friends like that who needs enemies?

Looking at the walls on television, the homeless ensconced  behind the walls and the police outside the walls preparing to attack…….my mind conjured up visions of little boys playing Cowboys [more properly Cavalry] and Indians.

Faced with these new developments the city should have remembered the advice Napoleon gave his Marshals: “the enemy is making a false move, why should we interrupt him?”

The intelligent thing for the city to do was……nothing. Go to court Monday, point to the behaviour that built a walled fort in a public parking lot and say that is why we need the court to order Jubilee Park vacated by these hooligans.

Instead the City seized the excuse and the cover provided by the actions of the homeless with their wall to strike quickly and render the question of court on Monday moot.

Given the lack of reason demonstrated by both sides it is lucky that DJ Larkin from Pivot Legal Society secured a court order. Thereby denying both sides the opportunity to do something incredibly stupid; stupid being an ability both sides have demonstrated having and being willing to use.

Apparently the four days until court on Monday was to long for either side to go without an Act of Stupidity.

Speaking of stupid is as stupid does, watching City Council’s behaviour over the years council has made it abundantly clear that when it comes to dealing with homelessness they like to consume several extra bowls of stupid before dealing with the issue.

The attempt to commit an Act of Stupidity Thursday afternoon is well within councils normal operating procedures. Or perhaps council didn’t want to set a precedent by going to court as though the homeless actually had rights.

 

Still, one wonders if City Council’s panicky attempt to avoid court by striking to force the homeless out of Jubilee on Thursday was a desperate attempt to avoid the need to appear in court, face a lawyer acting on behalf of the homeless and have………What? come out.

Sigh. If they had just left it be, but NO, city council felt compelled to overreact and focus attention on the homeless hiding behind their walls as the police build their barricades……and those images flash around the world making the City of Abbotsford appear even more ridiculous.

You know this level of weapons grade stupidity is the behaviour one expects from Americans.

Just how low have we sunk, and when did we lose touch with what it was to be Canadian?