Category Archives: Thoughts

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

Fear? Or Business as Usual Dumb?

Leave a comment

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?

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

One or the Other, but not Both

Leave a comment

From James’s ‘That’s So Life’ Files:

At the end of the shift Monday I took the elevator down to the garage to collect my car and head home only to find my car, that had been running perfectly when I arrived, did not want to take me home. Because it was a stick shift I was able to coax it home.

Arriving home I got out of the car, popped the hood and found to my surprise:

 

It certainly explained the behaviour of the car. Although how the oil cap that was on my car at the time I arrived at work was no longer on my car when I finished work 8 hours later is currently a mystery I would very much like to have solved.

I checked to make sure there was still oil in the engine and there was enough that there was no need, or room, to add more.

Feeling relieved that I had not been running the engine without oil I headed into my place, collected a camera and returned to the car to take photos of what had happened, the problem I needed to address to get my car running again. My plan was to return inside, download the pictures, use the internet to get feedback on the pictures and find transportation to secure a used oil cap from a used parts dealer to replace the missing cap and become mobile again.

All the while keeping my fingers crossed that all I need to do is replace the missing cap to become mobile once more.

I sit down at the computer, download the photographs, started my preferred web browser and………….no Internet.

Not unusual, but when nothing restored access to the internet I got up and checked the television to find that all of my [basic] television channels were “not authorized”.

I turned off the television and sat there waiting for the meteorite to crash down and put me out of my misery, hoping the universe was through playing cat to my mouse.

Wondering if the Universe had realized its error all those decades ago and was resetting to give me the life I had ordered; because this certainly was not the life I had ordered.

When it became clear that the Universe had no intention to either stop with the cat and mouse, or to correct its mistake, reset and give me the life I had ordered – that insidious little black thought crawled out of its containment and whispered about how I did not have to suffer this shit and that, although the car’s none running condition to cement bridge supports out of play, there was that great carving knife I had just found in a Thrift store Monday which would go through flesh like a hot knife through butter……..

………..and decided the wisest course of action was to let it go, go to bed and have a long sleep; dealing with things in a calm, rested manner tomorrow [Tuesday].

Arising Tuesday afternoon I set out for the Library, finding out bus fares were now $2.25. Arriving at the Library I signed onto a computer and made my way to the Shaw website and set up a chat. Shaw wanted payment by credit card because it is immediate cash in their pockets, I will spare you the grizzly details but Shaw was reasonable about getting paid by transfer from my bank account.

Leaving me to exit the Library, return home and make the agreed payment to Shaw.

Then sit down and write about how my day went because I still need to set up transportation to replace the oil cap and contact the shelter to let them know I am currently not mobile and until I can get a new oil cap I cannot get to work to cover any extra shifts.

Not to overlooked the fact writing it down is a way of dealing with, putting it in perspective and letting it go.

It occurs to me that Shaw’s warning system [threatening system] is by automated phone calls. With my phone number currently out of service any call by Shaw’s automated phone system would have gotten the automated message that my phone was out of service to which it would have regurgitated its threats of “pay or else” never recognizing that it was making its threats into thin air.

Now there is an interesting mental image: the human race suddenly dies off. As more and more accounts fall into arrears threatening phone calls are made by automated systems to other automated systems, services are cut off by automated systems setting off more calls made by automated systems to automated systems………and on and on…..and should any alien species pass this way they would find a planet full of automated systems threatening each other in a rising cacophony of……….what may be a fitting epitaph for our current society.

There is a science fiction short story in there as the aliens struggle to understand why the dead alien race built all these automated systems to threaten each other and a few other obvious discrepancies of our society. Only you write it in such a manner that it is not revealed that this is an alien race visiting a human lifeless Planet Earth until the last paragraph.

Which still leaves me with the need to deal with the missing oil cap; a situation that demonstrates the pitfalls of poverty that sit there waiting to dump you into, or back into, homelessness.

It is far harder to move from homeless to housed – and stay housed – in this society, economy, point in time than the general public would think it is. Not because the homeless want to be homeless but because of the barriers to becoming housed and all the things that can happen that become barriers to staying housed.

Consider, Municipal, Politics

Could it be so Simple?

Leave a comment

I have never really been able to understand Abbotsford City Council’s spendthrift ways, council’s well demonstrated ignoring of the basic infrastructure needs of the city, ignoring even the most basic fiscally responsible or prudent behaviours or council’s wastrel squandering of taxpayer dollars on vanity projects.

I can understand the temptation of ego and the temptation of it being ‘free money’ because it is coming out of someone else’s (the long suffering taxpayers of Abbotsford who will be suffering long into the future) pocket.

One would have thought [hoped, prayed] the novelty would wear off and a sense of responsibility, of ethical behaviour, would have city council acting more as if the money was coming from their own pockets and not as if they had just won the lottery.

Hoped and prayed that council might focus on actions that would address, not worsen, the growing social issues the city is facing or focus on basics like roadways that don’t try to throw you off the road; or roads that are not cratered with holes that like to swallow small automobiles; how about roads with lane markings you can see on the dark, illumination challenged roadways of Abbotsford?

But No; Abbotsford City Hall continued to play with taxpayers money as if taxpayer’s pockets were bottomless.

What is, or could be, going on within the confines of  Abbotsford City Hall ? Low oxygen content? Environment contamination?

And then, in a Thrift Store, I came across an item that would explain mayor, council and staff’s behaviours.

Until I found it in a Thrift Store I did not know the Game of Abbey-Opoly existed.

But The Game’s play within the confines of Abbotsford City Hall explains so much!

Mayor and city council spend taxpayer’s dollars as if they were play money because mayor and council cannot understand the difference between playing the Game of Abbey-Opoly and managing the City of Abbotsford.

Explaining why the mayor and council cannot grasp the value of taxpayer dollars, the needs – not wants – of the city and its citizens or the reality of homelessness.

Homeless, Municipal, Other Writers

ABBOTSFORD COMMUNITY SERVICES HOUSING PROPOSAL

Leave a comment

I am on the email list for the City of Refuge. This is from  the new newsletter. I want to say thank you to Jim Burkinshaw for both the excellence of what he wrote and for letting me post it to mt sire.

Well, it’s been awhile since our last newsletter!  Summer holidays and organizing the second annual “Abbotsford Christian Ministry Leaders” breakfast meeting conspired to keep me away from my newsletter duties. Researching the ACS housing proposal has also been an ongoing project and is the topic of this newsletter (it’s timely too since this is ‘Homelessness Action Week’).  I believe that the Christian community can be significantly involved in providing housing for people who have, for one reason or another, lost theirs and are living on our streets.  Abbotsford Community Services has worked hard to put together the following proposal:

What is the proposal?

Abbotsford Community Services (ACS) is proposing  a 21 unit “low barrier” apartment-type building at 2408 Montvue Avenue (on the same property as their existing offices).  This is not a temporary emergency shelter but rather ‘home’ for men who need a hand back up.  The units are self-contained and the men will pay rent.

Who is paying for this?

Our provincial government, through BC Housing, is providing $2.4M in capital funding plus operating funding in the amount of $215,000 annually on an ongoing basis.  ACS has contributed the land at no cost.  If the rezoning application is approved, the City of Abbotsford has provided a road dedication for a portion of Montvue Ave.

What is ‘low barrier’?

Low Barrier is a term used to mean that the residents do not have to be clean and sober before being considered as a tenant.  It will not operate a needle exchange as was once rumoured.

Why not ‘clean and sober’?

Alcohol and/or drugs are part of what led to homelessness in the first place. If we ask men to ‘clean themselves up’ before we offer to help with housing it is possible that in some cases it may make success more difficult; like asking a patient to ‘get better’ before going to see the doctor.  They will however be asked to sit with staff to develop, and commit to, an individualized plan that will help them achieve stability, wellness and independence. (Note: It is definitely possible to help men towards sobriety without providing housing first and abstinence-based methods can certainly be effective as well; housing-first is just one more way that works for some individuals).

Is this a good location?

To get the right combination of funding, programs, support and location is very difficult and any combination will have strengths and weaknesses.  One key is the proximity to ACS and the supervision and services that they will be offering.  ACS has a long history of helping people deal with challenges, getting back on their feet, rejoining their families and the community as healthy, contributing members.

Is the proposed building in the appropriate zoning area? 

This proposal is right on the border of acceptable zoning; if it was on the other side of the street (McDougall) it would no longer be within the ADBA (Abbotsford Downtown Business Association) and C7 zoning area. However, rezoning is applied for on a regular basis by business owners, farmers, developers and home-owners for many reasons; rezoning applications are an intentional tool designed to allow for minor discrepancies or opportunities that the broader, generalized, zoning rules did not foresee when they were put in place (the C7 Zoning by-law was passed 12 years ago).

Will this cause an undue ‘concentration’ of problems in downtown Abbotsford? 

Some business owners are concerned about this; others are not.  However, these men are already on our streets; not all downtown of course but many of them frequent the downtown area and some do sleep in our doorways and back alleys right now.  But this is not just a downtown issue and under this proposal 20 men will no longer be ‘homeless men’;  they will be ‘men with a home’  and will be in the process of re-building their lives.  Studies of areas where this type of housing has been provided clearly show a decrease in criminal activity, hospital emergency room visits and calls to police.  Based on other facilities like this it should provide a positive solution towards reducing homelessness and at the same time protect local businesses.

What was New Westminster’s Experience?

New Westminster had a  similar situation and they were referred to me as an example. I talked to two different businesses in New West; both were in the immediate vicinity of theUnion Gospel Mission drop-in centre and a 23-unit low-barrier apartment operated by the Lookout Emergency Aid Society. Both said that they did not have any significant problems associated with the proximity of low barrier housing in their neighborhoods.  I also contacted the New Westminster Business Improvement Association and was told that they had no complaints from their members (“and we would certainly hear about it if there were!”).  Their spokesperson went on to say that there was a good rapport between businesses and the apartments, that they worked together and that the men from the units kept all of the downtown streets clean (some of the men are paid a modest amount to pick up litter in the downtown area 3 days a week in a program called ‘EyesOnTheStreet’).  Several businesses in the area also donate to the housing organizations.  Andy Bradshaw, President of the New Westminster BIA confirmed the above and added that success will depend on the organization overseeing the housing units as well as the supports and conditions in place.  He said that housing serves as a stepping stone and that many of the men now had jobs and were now part of society.

Isn’t ‘rebuilding your life’ a pretty tough challenge?  What assurance is there that this will happen?

Nothing is guaranteed; but ‘housing- first’ projects like this have been shown to provide the best chance for success.  Once someone is in off the street, safe, dry and part of a supportive network with a permanent fixed address  the hard work of rebuilding can begin.  The men will first need to apply for housing, they will then be assessed to ensure that they are eligible and that they understand and agree to expectations.  It is true that some people are not ready to change; the men selected however will be those who want  to rebuild their lives, who are willing to follow the rules and the plan and who just need a hand up.

What rules? What plan? 

There will be strict rules regarding conduct both inside and outside the building.  A Good Neighbour Committee made up of representatives from ACS staff, local business owners and residents will address any problems; repeated and unresolved problems will result in a tenant being asked to leave.  There is a suite for a caretaker and the building and property will be supervised 24 hours a day, every day.  No visitors will be allowed in the units at any time; all socializing will be in the common rooms on the main floor. Each man will also sit down with ACS staff and develop an individual plan around such things as addiction recovery, counseling , advocacy, job training and employment; if anyone decides they do not want to follow their plan they will be helped to find other accommodations.  There is currently a Supportive Housing Committee that gives input and advice on operations, intake, etc.  It is comprised of ACS staff and representatives from theAbbotsford Police Department, The Salvation Army, Kinghaven Treatment Centre, the Women’s Resource Society of the Fraser Valley, support workers and mental health and addictions practitioners.

Will men be brought in from outside Abbotsford?

Decisions regarding eligibility will be made locally with representatives from ACS staff as well as addictions and mental health practitioners.  The goal is that the units will be ‘Abbotsford-first’.  It is estimated that currently there are between 80 and 100 homeless men in Abbotsford (and many more ‘near homeless’).  In a ‘straw poll’ at the Abbotsford Food Bank 9 out of 11 currently homeless men who were asked said that they would be willing to be part of this project, including the rules that govern it.

Who is ACS? Are they qualified to do this?

ACS was founded by Abbotsford residents 44 years ago and serves over 40,000 people each year. 350 staff and 1,400 volunteers make possible 80 programs and services to single parents, newcomers to Canada, seniors; anyone in need.  They operate the Abbotsford Food Bank, Abbotsford Mission Recycling Program, the Family Centre, The Parenting Place, Extreme Weather shelter program as well as counseling programs (including addiction), adult education, job training and help finding employment; all in over 55 languages.  ACS was selected by BC Housing, together with the City of Abbotsford, to operate the project.

Why should Christians consider this project?

Isaiah 58,  Matthew 5:7…Micah 6:8… literally hundreds of times throughout the Scriptures it is clear that followers of Christ have a mandate to help those in need.

God gives a pretty comprehensive list through Isaiah (Ch. 58, summarized)….

“..loose the chains of injustice
…untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free  and break every yoke.
…share your food with the hungry
…provide the poor wanderer with shelter
…when you see the naked, clothe them,
…do away with the yoke of oppression
…spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
…satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
…you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

How can you respond?

1. Pray
2. Attend the public forum on Friday, November 15th at the University of the Fraser Valley to find out more
3. Attend the Public Hearing and respectfully share your views.  Dates for the Public Hearings have not been announced yet.
4. Write to our Mayor and City Councillors; letters carry weight.

The best letters to Council are:

1. Hand-written; it shows a lot of thought and care.  But if you can’t do a handwritten letter don’t let that stop you; a good old-fashioned computer will also work.
2. Short and to the point; only address the issue at hand.
3. Factual; don’t write anything that you do not know for certain is true.
4. Written in your own words; letters that are obviously ‘boiler plate’ carry little weight.
5. Respectful in choice of words and tone; no negative comments about anyone taking an opposing view on the issue.

Letters can be addressed to (please c.c. ACS. You will be sent an acknowledgement of receipt):

City of Abbotsford
Attention: Mayor and Council,
32315 South Fraser Way
Abbotsford, BC  V2T 1W7

Phone/Fax
Phone:    604-853-2281
Fax:        604-853-1934

A group email can be sent to the Mayor and Council:

www.abbotsford.ca > mayor & council > city council > email mayor and council