While reading the Abbotsford News story about the 20 extra rental supplements the BC government is adding  to the supplements already available in Abbotsford, I found myself wondering what Abbotsford City Council is really doing with all the funds it claims it is spending on cleanup and other costs of dealing with the homeless.

It was reading the comments by Lookout executive director Shayne Williams and that Lookout’s Riverside shelter had placed 146 people in housing that caused me to wonder what Abbotsford City Council is really spending all the taxpayer $$$$ they claim to spend on homelessness on.

Even without knowing the number of person’s placed in housing by the Warm Zone, Abbotsford Community Services, the City of Abbotsford’s funding intensive new homeless intake system or other Abbotsford organizations, the results of the homeless counts and the fact the Abbotsford Salvation Army produces results akin to those of Lookout’s Riverside shelter should provide a snapshot of the current state of homelessness in Abbotsford.

If you take the number of homeless housed by Lookout and the Salvation Army [146 + 146 = 292] and subtract that number from the number of homeless counted by this year’s homeless count, you have to wonder why Abbotsford’s City Council is not at risk of broken arms patting themselves on the back. One would think any city council would be very pleased by having [271 – 292 = -21] negative homeless people on Abbotsford’s streets.

Negative homeless people is patently ridiculous but miss a few people during the count and with the arrival in Abbotsford of homeless from elsewhere and you could have a small number of homeless in Abbotsford rather than a negative number of homeless.

So with the numbers telling us that any homeless remaining g on the streets of Abbotsford are few and far between the questions that are raise are 1) what is Abbotsford City Council really doing with all the $$$$ it claims to be spending on homelessness and 2) what is the true nature of all the activity and apparent homeless on the streets of Abbotsford; what is really going on?