Category Archives: behaviour

behaviour, Issues, Municipal, Snafu

Where’s the Homeless Housing?

Leave a comment

WHERE’S the HOUSING?

That is the question on the lips of the homeless after reading the “Homeless in the City” series of articles.

They had thought that ‘being homeless’ referred to those without housing, rather than ‘homeless’ referring to those who did not own their own homes.

The Harmony Flex Housing Development is about OWNERSHIP, about making home ownership a viable option for those whose income is not sufficient to achieve home ownership without the favourable terms associated with this development.

While we need to find innovative ways to make home ownership affordable for more people …… those who this development will enable to own their home are currently housed and not on or in danger of finding themselves on the streets of Abbotsford.

The Harmony Flex Housing Development has and continues to take time and attention away from the urgent, critical need for housing for the homeless, those who are on their way to homelessness and those in danger of becoming homeless.

Should the churches and others listen to Councillor Smith and focus on this type of development it would be to the detriment of the people in need of safe, healthy affordable housing.

The priority for housing is, as it has been for years: for minimal barrier housing for those with addiction and mental health issues and those just plain hard to house because they are who they are; for supportive transitional housing for all those coming out of treatment in order to break the cycle of relapse/treatment/relapse; for supportive housing that is stable and long term for those (brain injury, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome etc) who need continued support to thrive.

Contrast the effort and speed of getting homeownership housing built for those who are home(ownership)less with the years of excuse making the homeless living on streets of Abbotsford have faced on housing.

It is excuse making. Half the people voted against Plan A but council bulled ahead because they were determined to build Plan A. Council found land, money and when projects were over budget, council found more money; council wanted to build Plan A and, to *bleep* with the consequences they did.

If council had a desire to build affordable housing for the homeless rather than form a committee and pay lip-service to building housing for the homeless, then we would have built and be building affordable housing for the homeless and those in need and the homeless would not, year after year after year, be asking:

WHERE’S the HOUSING?

behaviour, Issues

Proper noun is People.

Leave a comment

“James helps others.”

I prefer to think of it as I help people, not others.

Last week at a supper several homeless individuals were discussing something to do with homelessness. At one point in the discussion Jerry needed to make a point and called me over.

He gestured and asked “What do you see?” I turned, looked at the cityscape and asked him what he meant. He repeated “What do you see?” Hmmm??? After a few more exchanges it turned out the part of the cityscape he was asking me what I saw was the people.

While my answer lacked elegance it did make clear that when I looked at them I saw a group of individual people, many of whom I knew.

I did not see undeserving bums, cons, thieves, people who choose to be addicts or any other of the popular labels applied to this group.

Jerry seemed happy because whatever the discussion they were having was, the point he was making was the difference between looking at them and applying a label and looking and seeing them as individual people

Do some of them have addictions? Most certainly, however seeing them or thinking of them just as addicts brings with it preconceptions and attitudes that get in the way of the help they need as opposed to the help you think/believe they need or should get.

Mr. X is a person with a problem(s) and that problem happens to be his addiction. Is addiction a behaviour that is unwise? Yes. Does addiction give rise to behaviours that are a royal pain in the ass to deal with? Yes. Is that an excuse not to help this individual? No.

Helping or not helping is not about them it is about us. Our choice to help or not to help reflects the nature of each of us as individuals and of our society.

When you do not want to do something you can always find an excuse to not do it. You apply labels such as addicts or worthless or lazy bums or talk about not deserving.

The society everyone seems to decry results from the decisions and actions of the members of that society. And one of the fundamental foundation stones of that society is how we treat the most vulnerable and weak of our society.

Given the way society and government currently treats “them” it should not surprise anyone how our society behaves and functions.

As you sow, so shall you reap.

They are people and as such we should help – whether we want to or not – because this is how an intelligent, mature species behaves.

Which is why I say I help people not I help others; others carries the suggestion of us versus others when we need to respect that we all are people.

Still I like “I may never be able to sit having a coffee on the sidewalk in the same way again.”

Another one down, a few million Canadians left to illumine.

behaviour, Consider

At least spend a moment to think of others.

Leave a comment

Greed, selfishness, it’s all about me ….not a very good basis to build a society on; so why have we done just that?

Indeed, greed, selfishness, it’s all about me has become so ingrained, so much part of the fabric of our society that people no longer even recognize this behaviour for what it is.

A, perturbing reality highlighted by the media coverage and the behaviour of the citizens involved and/or affected by the cancellation of the funding for the seniors programs. Threats of not voting Liberal to blackmail them into changing their decision, screams for the funding to be restored, etc …

I think the cancelled program is a good, cost effective program that delivers needed and beneficial services.

What disturbs me is that the reaction was this is taking something away from ME and I want it back.

As a society we have become so self-centred that when anything such as this happens, any situation that takes something away from ME, we scream to get it back without ever asking or considering what the cost to others is. Others? It is all about me!

If the money was restored to the program, where would it come from? If the $86,000 is put back into the seniors program, what program (or programs) loses $86,000?

If the province funds the $86,000 by increasing the deficit then we are simply adding to the burden of debt we have saddled our children, our grandchildren, great grandchildren … with. It is all about ME thinking has become so basic a part of our society that we do not give a passing thought to borrowing money and leaving future generations to pay for our self-indulgent, improvident life styles.

It is about ME; why should I consider the effect on those not ME?

The fact that ME based decision making lacks foresight, is incautious, is unwary and neglects to provide for future needs or the needs of others is not MY problem … until the consequences of this behaviour comes home to roost and good programs begin to be cut.

We can continue to make decisions based only upon ourselves, voting for those who tell us what we want to hear, the behaviour that got us where we are today…

Or we can consider others and the health of our society and begin to address issues, solve problems and perhaps manage to get ourselves out of the deep hole, karmic and financial, that we have dug ourselves into.