The Official BC Liberal government excuse?

Listening to Claude Richmond respond to the recent think tank report on Income Assistance I was left wondering whether the BC Liberal government had adopted an official excuse for all matters pertaining to social policy.

“This does not take into consideration changes made …” Claude Richmond or Rich Coleman or Gordon Campbell or any other Liberal answering question about the latest negative evaluation of BC government social policy all spout the same deficient excuse.

Of course none of the numerous reports critical of government social policy took into consideration whether Gordon Campbell danced nude under the full moon in his back yard. A consideration that has just as much validity regarding dismissing or ignoring the reviews and reports critical of social policies as does the official “changes made” excuse.

The beauty of this Official Liberal Government Excuse is that it can be used anytime and anywhere, since there is always a time lag between the last information gathered for a report and the delivery of the report.

Thus it is that the BC Liberals can continue to bury their head in the sand on matters that their ideology wishes to ignore. Of course the fact the BC Liberals ignore social issues does not change the worsening reality faced by the most vulnerable in our society in dealing with homelessness, mental illness, addiction and poverty.

Mr. Richmond dismissed the report about the inadequacies of current Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance because the government had raised the monthly allowances by $50 + $50. Not only totally ignoring everything else the report had to say, but also ignoring the reality that even with the extra $100 a month it is not possible to survive in the lower mainland on $610 per month.

Not wanting to talk about the fact that, as the report pointed out, expecting people faced with the challenges of survival on $610 a month to conduct a job search and find employment is ludicrous; or any of the pressing issues raised in the numerous negative evaluations of the BC Liberal record of failure to deal with or address the serious social issues facing BC today, the government just labels them “out of date”.

Viewing the Liberal government’s policies from the streets one thing is clear: when Rich Coleman speaks of “not knowing what is happening on the ground” he is describing the Liberal government, not the authors of the reports that the Liberal government ignores.

Rather than continuing to use the same (lame) official excuse the Liberals should just admit they lack any understanding of what the reality on the ground is; admit they lack any knowledge of what is happening on the streets; acknowledge their lack of ideas, vision or leadership with which to address the growing poverty and social challenges faced by the province of BC.

This approach would at least have the novelty of truth.

62 people hungry people, including a mother with three children who “just had no money for food”, were fed Tuesday night at Calvin Presbyterian Church. This is the third year for Tuesday night meals at this location, three years of increasing numbers of hungry people needing to be fed.

Two days earlier the Blue Bus handed out bags of food to 113 people – before running out. Late comers were at least fortunate there was some stew and coffee left to put something in their hungry stomachs.

Wednesday at Global Harvest floor space to move around was at a premium because of the need to crowd extra tables onto the floor to feed the hungry, including children, who came for an evening meal.

At Hillside’s monthly lunch there was just enough to give everyone one serving where usually there is enough for seconds and thirds – and it was not the quantity of food that changed.

Gordon Campbell and Rich Coleman blithely assured British Columbians that there was no need to react to the report prepared for BC Mental Health that cited 15,500 as the number of homeless on the streets of the province because “These reports always lag behind” and “I know what is happening on the ground”.

NO, you “know” what your plans say is happening on the ground. We all know just how much attention Reality pays to “plans” – none. If the politicians took the time to step outside their sheltered, privileged existence, they might come to see the difference between what they think is happening and what is actually occurring.

Rather than spending the Easter break lying on a sun soaked beach, courtesy of the large raises they voted themselves out of taxpayer’s pockets, Mr Campbell and Mr Coleman should earn those exorbitant salaries by booking their places on the Breckenridge Homeless Life Tour.

Nights spent at various locations – the emergency shelter, under bridges, bush camps, doorways or just on the street. A chance to learn how to find washroom facilities you can use or to find a place cleanup or to shower. A culinary tour de force of food sources for the hungry poor, including far too many chances to experience the delight of having to survive the night(s) without food.

Pack light tourists; keep in mind your need to carry all your belongings with you. The tour does include the one opportunity to wash and dry your belongings – if you are fortunate; it also includes opportunities to seek used clothing.

The Tour provides a unique opportunity for direct feedback from those so directly and adversely affected by government policy or lack of policy.

Whether Mr. Campbell or Mr. Coleman will take the Tour, whether they have the mental and physical toughness to last two weeks in the reality the homeless and poor face daily, they need to get out of their golden castles into the real world and experience the world of seniors, families and children who “just cannot afford food” or of the poor and homeless who “simply cannot afford housing”.

Mr. Campbell, Mr. Coleman and all the Liberal MLAs need to heed Jawaharlal Nehru’s admonition on the need to temper theory with reality; they need to open their eyes and truly see the effects their decisions and actions have on the citizens living in BC who are not part of the privileged classes.

BC Housing is in the process of forcing the Emergency Shelter in Abbotsford to switch to a 24/7 (hours/days) schedule and adopt operational policies dictated by BC Housing.

This change will have negative consequences not only on the shelter operations but upon all other programs offered at the Centre of Hope.

Why should Abbotsford be concerned? The homeless are part of our community and actions that have negative consequences upon them will in turn have negative effects upon the community as a whole.

The concern is not that BC Housing has come up with a new homeless program to be implemented through the shelters in BC, but rather that it is being imposed on all shelters without considering if the new policies are appropriate for a given shelter and/or location. They are forcing even shelters not wanting to run on the 24/7 basis, for good sound reasons, to run 24/7 – or they will not get any funding. Either the Emergency Shelter runs under their program or Abbotsford loses its shelter funding.

Since the new policy comes with increased funding, one would think that BC Housing would recognize that there must be serious concerns about the negative effects on some of the shelters for them to seek to not receive more money. Unfortunately BC Housing has not shown any evidence that they are interested in whether there are good reasons to not change shelter operations. Rather they are blindly forcing all shelters to change, ignoring that “one size fits all” policies often have very negative consequences for those of odd size.

For communities with multiple shelters, for larger shelters and shelters with separate entrances the new policy is doable.

The emergency shelter is the only shelter in Abbotsford/Mission, it is small – actually totally inadequate in size for the increasing demand for shelter space and it shares the entrance path with the majority of other programs. In fact the shelter space is used during the day for other programs.

I want to be very clear that the concern is not with the new shelter policy itself, but that due to the size and location of Abbotsford’s emergency shelter implementing it will have negative results that will far outweigh any benefits, causing a great deal of damage and hardship to the people the policy is suppose to help.

The concept behind the new policy is good. What is lacking for the new shelter policy to be solidly successful, is the other programs needed to follow upon and provide support for the homeless to transition out of the shelter system and into more (and increasingly) stable housing. The government has put up a doorframe and door as an entrance point but they have failed to build the rest of the structure needed to provide a home to the homeless. But that is an argument for another time.

As stated I like the concept behind the new shelter policy initiative. However I think that the specific physical reality of the Abbotsford emergency shelter makes it totally unsuitable to running 24/7. Forcing the shelter to run under the new 24/7 rules will have many negative consequences far outweighing any possible benefits.

Addressing homelessness requires participation by the community. In this case what is needed is for members of the community of Abbotsford to contact our local MLA’s Mike de Jong (mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca), John van Dongen (john.vandongen.mla@leg.bc.ca) Minister Rich Coleman (rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca) and Premier Gordon Campbell (gordon.campbell.mla@leg.bc.ca, premier@gov.bc.ca) asking for their help in getting BC Housing to continue to fund the emergency shelter under its current operations rather than forcing a change with negative outcomes upon the shelter.

It would not hurt to ask them to see if there are any other shelters that will be or are being negatively impacted by being forced to adopt new operational behaviours and policies.

Internment Camps?

Watching the news during the first weekend of February was disquieting, raising questions and concerns about the Campbell government’s ability to address homelessness, mental illness, addiction, poverty and poverty reduction not only in a suitable but a just way. I was also left with serious doubts about the government’s capability to deal with these issues in an effective and fiscally responsible manner.

Two years ago I wrote that if the Campbell government continued to suffer from a lack of ideas, leadership and some boldness they would be digging in the archives for the old plans to the World War II camps used to intern Canadians of Japanese ethnicity.

No leadership, no ideas, no innovation, no boldness and you find time ticking away creating political pressure to DO SOMETHING! Anyway of rounding up the homeless and getting them out of sight before the eyes of the world turns to BC for the Olympic Games in 2010 begins to look tempting.

Sounds a little farfetched?

Until you have Health Minister George Abbots talking about reopening Riverview to begin getting the homeless mentally ill of the streets and interned out of sight. Of course this is for “their own good”. Given the number of homeless estimated in the report for mental health it is clear that just Riverview could not house all 15,500 homeless. You would have to find other “accommodation” for the balance.

The government did talk about using old prisons or other such facilities in the interior as places to set up residential programs that would help people get a trade and ready to get back into society, “for their own good”. I heard the other day about just such a two year program running right now although of very limited space.

You would have to come up with some sort of plans for camps to house the residents of a program expanded to 15,500. Perhaps the archives …

Politicians, political pressure and political expediency have me remembering the caution that “the road to hell is paved with good attentions”.

The government’s plans to look at reopening Riverview to house the homeless “for their own good” is a plan to step onto a very steep, very slippery slope. It is a slope that as someone who has suffered homelessness and mental illness fills me with disquiet and foreboding.