Ahhhhhh – it’s just Abbotsford’s mayor and council one again rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I see Abbotsford’s housing coordinator, Ms. Dena Kae Beno, is ensuring that the City of Abbotsford continues to generates a plethora of pointless BLAH, BLAH, BLAH about homelessness as Abbotsford presented the all day Regional Forum on Housing First Best Practices on Thursday, October 15, 2015..

A forum on Housing First Best Practices, there is an oxymoron concept. Assuming one is speaking of the approach – Housing First – that has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to effectively reduce homelessness; and not speaking of the buzzword ‘housing first’ as usurped by Abbotsford’s mayor and council. The way the mayor et al toss ‘housing first’ around it is as though they believe using the invocation ‘housing first’ will somehow align the stars and planets and homelessness in Abbotsford will disappear without the need for sustained effort and tough choices.

I wonder ……. when Abbotsford’s homeless population continues to grow because the actions and behaviours of the city’s municipal government continue to facilitate the growth of homelessness  will we see mayor and council on Gladys avenue gesturing mystically and shouting “ABRACADABRA”?

Yes I know it seems a silly suggestion but, it would be as effective at addressing homelessness as anything the city has done, is doing or proposes to do. Actually, it would probably be more useful as it at least has entertainment value.

If one is in fact speaking of ‘housing first’ as usurped by Abbotsford’s mayor and council, then a Regional Forum on Housing First Best Practices fits right in with the BLAH BLAH BLAH of jargon, buzzwords and bureaucratese. It will create lots of words and commotion without the need to engage in the unpleasantness of having to do the hard slogging required if you actually undertake the task of reducing homelessness.

Best of all, you can spend the day at the forum ‘working’ on homelessness without the need to deal with the homeless.

I have no idea what this forum is intended to accomplish, hopefully it is intended to accomplish something, but whatever that something is it isn’t reducing homelessness.

That way the forum won’t be disrupted by embarrassing questions such as why Abbotsford is wasting time and money on homeless bureaucrats, research assistants, a homeless advisory and so on and so on …….

.;…… and ignoring the results, information, approach, tools and techniques demonstrated as effective in reducing – not recycling – the homeless population by the Canadian Federal governments 5 year research study.

The study whose results were so impressive the federal government earmarked funds to act as seed money to enable communities to create and implement a Housing First Action Plan of the type the research study demonstrated as effective in reducing homelessness.

Funds earmarked to create and implement Housing First Action Plans, not in three, ten or twenty years but now, from which the city received – from the federal conservative government in this election year – $400,000.00.

$400,000.00 that, thanks to the efforts of the mayor, council, Homeless Advisory Committee chaired by veteran city councillor Dave Loewen, homeless bureaucrat Ms Beno and consultants, will be frittered away and Abbotsford’s homeless population still growing.

$400,000 that in competent – make that even marginally competent – hands would have created a Housing First Action Plan setting out how Abbotsford was going to reduce homelessness and the resources required to do that.

Operational Note: An Action Plan is intended to clarify what resources are required to reach the goal. Moaning about it ‘not being your responsibility’ or ‘you don’t have the resources’ or ‘cannot afford the resources’ when you have not determined what resources are needed is so …… Abbotsfordian ……. futilely raising barriers that block the only choice you have, the only choice demonstrated to achieve the goal – reducing then ending homelessness.  

So in Abbotsford we don’t have a Housing First Action Plan to reduce homelessness, but we do have a forum on on Housing First Best Practices.

A forum that, while it is not about reducing homelessness, is hoped to accomplish something – or other

Something that does not require speakers with experience creating, implementing or managing Housing First Action Plans, or from cities using a Housing First Action Plan to reduce their homeless population.

But nonetheless Something – Your Tax Dollars at Work.