Homeless

Re: Recovery Houses

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Good story on this issue. It is great to see the Post, as a local paper, continuing to show its readers the many pieces of the puzzle that are involved in homelessness and drug use. With the increases in these groups forcing them to the forefront of public attention, it is vital that the public be given a full rounded view of the scope and issues involved. Without understanding the reality of the actual conditions that exist, any decisions made will fail to bring about positive changes. The refusal to see reality when setting policies is what resulted in the current growing problems we face. We need to make choices that will have positive results in helping the people branded as either homeless bums or druggies in getting back their lives and all of us together in building stronger, more vibrant communities.

To have any real chance of working recovery must be a choice made by the addict, it cannot be imposed from outside. Addiction is powerful, with a strong grip on its victims, which means that any delay in getting the addict into treatment allows the addiction to re-establish its grip and pull the person back into their addiction. I have seen to many instances where delay has granted the addiction time to do just that. I do not think one can over stress just how important it is for those in need of treatment to be able to get help NOW.

People need to work hard to see what the real situation is, since it is so tempting and easy to see what we want to see or base decision on what we think should be. Then reality bites our …butts and we end up creating some other nasty mess(es). One of the goals that citizens and the City want to achieve in addressing the question of recovery houses is to keep the “good” and close down/reform the “bad”. My first impulse when this is discussed is YES!, we need to weed out the “bad” houses. Which would make me as guilty of ignoring reality as I chastise the public, City and government for being. I was reminded this week, in one of those twists of fate the universe likes to get our attention with, that those recovery houses oft called or considered bad serve a very necessary purpose. The day before the City held a meeting to address the question of recovery homes I was in a conversation with someone on the front lines of the homeless situation in Surrey. During the conversation the existence of “bad” recovery homes came up and it was pointed out just how necessary a part they play in addressing the needs of the homeless and drug users. Arrrgggh. I thus find myself in the unpleasant and decidedly uncomfortable position of having to argue that, as much as we all might like to, we cannot blindly go around closing recovery houses without first putting in place the needed resources to replace the vital function they serve.

Yes, some of the “bad” recovery houses are no more than flop houses for drug users. The problem with just running around closing them or forcing them to only deal with those who are ready to start or are in recovery is what happens to all the residents who are not ready – yet – for recovery. Remember the closing of the Fraser Valley Inn? The View from the Streets by the homeless of this event was very different than that of those snug in their homes. Closing down the Inn created 20 homeless people as only a couple of the people who had been living in the Inn found someplace else to shelter. Some of them had been living in the woods on Sumas Way for months before it became know as Compassion Park. It is a year later and some of them are, shamefully, still on the streets today. I say shamefully as the City, as our representatives, thoughtlessly threw these people onto the streets effectively saying to them “tough luck; to bad; you’re not worth our consideration or help”.

Yes there were many problems with the Inn, as there are problems with some recovery houses. I am not saying you should not want to close the substandard among them. I am saying you cannot close them until you have available alternatives for housing and services. Closing the Inn did not solve anything; it merely spread the people and problems around the city, in reality making them harder to deal with. Until such time as we have invested in the resources required to deliver support to these people, our fellow human beings and citizens, we need all the housing spots for them that we have. Faced with the same situation the more rational and caring of our neighbouring cities have chosen to work with those houses considered to be undesirable in order to minimize any problems and to maximize the help rendered to their residents.

One fairly small piece of the puzzle and what do we have? A complex reality that denies simple solutions and denies us the right to go with our impulses, even if they embody good intentions, because of the harm they would cause the very people we would claim to be helping. One of the prices our society must pay for having swept this under the rug until it became a problem to large to ignore, is that we are playing catch up. Sometimes we are just going to have to live with aspects of the problems until the resources are marshalled and in place to properly address the situation. Such is the current situation with recovery houses. We will have to live with compromises in the immediate future, while working on longer term strategies and supportive resources. Or live with the fallout from dumping 100+ more homeless, all at once, onto the streets.

Homeless

A rather interesting response …

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In response to Mark B. Toth’s letter of Sept. 2, 2006, I would like to suggest that he read his own words – with an open mind. He states “I wrote…,” “I honestly believe…” and “I added…”. “I, I, I” states Mr. Toth then protests Mr. Lanning attributing to Mr. Toth his own words. I draw Mr. Toths attention to the definition of the word I – “the nominative singular pronoun, used by a speaker in referring to himself”. Mr. Toth was speaking of himself personally and I would like to know how anyone was to reply without also speaking of his self stated personal profanities.

I also draw to Mr. Toth’s attention the fact that words such as Bigoted and Narrow minded are adjectives. To address Mr. Toth’s obvious lack of understanding of the concept of adjectives: n. 1: a word that expresses an attribute of something 2: the word class that qualifies nouns. These words are descriptive of the noun, which in this cases happens to be Mr. Toth’s mindset as demonstrated by his own words.

I believe that any reasonable Canadian reading Mr. Toth’s original letter would agree that it clearly demonstrates: Bigoted: blindly and obstinately attached to some creed or opinion and intolerant toward others as well as Narrow minded: 1) having or showing a prejudiced mind, as persons or opinions; biased. 2) not receptive to new ideas; having a closed mind. 3) morally self-righteous.

Trying to suggest that he cannot be held responsible for his clearly demonstrated bigotry and narrow mindedness if he attacks a caste as opposed to an individual is pure sophistry.

The most interesting aspect of Mr. Toth’s letter is his apparent concession to being “bigoted, narrow minded”, in that he offers no defence of these descriptions of his character, but attempts to hid behind word games. Unfortunately for his attempts at deception those reading his diversionary tactics, for the most part, posses a degree of literacy that denies him this dishonesty.

Municipal

Just how dumb …

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What, Abbotsford couldn’t build a much smaller, cheaper arena with someone to help pay the bills for an established hockey team like the Chilliwack Chiefs. Instead we chased them out of town when they wanted to come here. Now council wants to build a building we don’t need that has nobody to use it except for some vague promises of maybe getting some kind of team. Like we are suppose to take a politicians promise seriously. You use to have more sense George. They promise to stick your name on it or something? 55 MILLION BUCKS!!!! For that we could build and buy all the other things we need.

I’ve lived in Abbotsford for years and I never heard of any world class art or world class museum bits and pieces. So why blow 10 million more bucks on a world class place for regular stuff? Why can’t those who claim to support that kind of thing put their own money where their mouth is and do fund raising themselves to pay for it like they do in big cities such as Vancouver? The Whalers raised money for improvements to Centennial Pool and the city has not kept faith with them. If the chic don’t think it important enough to raise money for then just stick some rooms on the ARC extension. Maybe then the ordinary people who pay the bills will see it.

I want a guarantee that council and anyone who votes yes will be paying all taxes needed over 158.00 a year. We all know about estimates and skyrocketing real cost. Why should I be forced to pay for councils boondoggles?

Chris O’Neill

Homeless

A Very lively Corpse

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Ah, this mortal coil! I was speaking to my friend Steve at lunch today and I must say he is very lively for a dead person and looking very good for a corpse. He has been dead for approximately four years at this point, although in our conversation it came out he was not aware of the exact date of his death, not having been there for it. We both agreed that, just as a point of interest, it would be rather out of the ordinary to know what day you died – a tiny Bon Mot to drop into conversation.

People often make assumptions, pretty much of a non-complimentary nature; about how and why someone, or that entire class of someone’s, became homeless. Now being dead is, in my experience anyway, a little radical as a cause or major contributing cause to somebody ending up homeless and on the streets. Nevertheless, there are many more unique stories among those categorized as homeless than pigeonholing this diverse group under the simple label “homeless” suggests to the general public.

To return to Steve’s story: he had migrated westward from his home in Quebec, losing touch with his sister along his journey as they were not close. Hey, was it not for e-mail I would have undoubtedly been incommunicado, family wise, during the worst of my mental struggles and homelessness. So about four years ago, after not hearing from Steve in years, his sister had him declared dead to allow for settling legal matters. Had not fate, in the form of flames, intervened this might have been not a major headache and obstacle, but rather a great conversation piece. If you google Steve Aspin you will find a link to the online archives of the Abbotsford Times and can read the story of the fire that consumed his home (trailer) and all his identification. Without ID you may be alive and kicking, but pretty well as far as government and other institutions are concerned you are a ghost, a non-person, a fabricated falsehood. In this day and age of Identity Theft proving you are who you are can prove extremely challenging, especially for those with the added tribulation of being numbered among the dead.

As I pointed out when I wrote up and e-mailed Steve’s corpsehood difficulties to newspapers, radio and television – to get identification you need identification, a rather frustrating Catch-22 situation to try to resolve. I had hoped someone would have a suggestion or way to overcome this barrier but nothing came of this. Currently Steve’s best hope for resurrection would appear to lie with a teacher from MEI who met Steve through the Redemption Café and is determined to help him obtain identification. Hopefully have some acquaintance with our local MP Mr. Fast will give her a foothold on the towering wall of bureaucracy she must climb to accomplish Steve’s return to life.

So the next time you see a homeless person consider that they may not be homeless because of the reasons you assume. Rather they may have suffered one of the many other ways to slide onto the streets and into the ranks of the homeless. You may even be seeing or standing next to someone who has departed ordinary life in more than the customary sense.

Caveat emptor, Consider

Refreshing Media change.

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You keep going like this… and you are going to not only live up to your stated aspirations, maybe even exceeding them, but you are going to have a very interesting, must read publication. That is how I had planed to end the last sentence in my prior letter, but then the best laid plans of mice and men. Or perhaps it was just fate this week’s edition contains an excellent start covering an important issue even though it is not “nice” and entails a certain amount of controversy.

Perspective – Whoa! An informative piece hinting at the temptations that a drug can have, the seductive promises that the drug and its effects can make: euphoria, endless energy, decreased appetite (easy weight loss), alertness. For the education of the public who tend to only see the end product of drugs – the addict – Ms Daniel paints a picture of the ordinary people that it lures into using with its siren song. The housewife, mother, sons and daughters, outstanding school athletes and scholars, fathers, business people – these are the real people that lie buried within the addicts that end up on our streets. Hopefully articles such as this can help people to see that the “addicts” are people, people suffering from listening to the seductive promises of a “mother’s little helper”. Then perhaps we can cease judging and concentrate on healing.

The promise of the Post that this is only the first of a series on this issue holds forth the promise of bringing knowledge and understanding to allow Post readers to begin to comprehend the nature of the insanity that is drug addiction. Dare I hope for a perspective that examines what effect legality (nicotine, cigarettes) vs. illegality (crystal meth) can have on addiction, the addict, “functional users” and on crime.

The issue also contained Kevin Gilles’s article on the growing and increasingly visible challenge presented by homelessness. The first thought I want to share is that it is a rather damning comment on our society that the Salvation Army and other organizations that help those in distress need a PR hack … ahem, let’s make that a PR person as, in spite of her unfortunately required occupation, Deb is a nice person – whom I know as a caring individual. How can we have any expectation of achieving progress on a multifaceted series of interrelated acutely complex and muddled people problems, when on even the simple aspects of this gargantuan chaotic mess we have to apply spin in presenting even the most elementary and simple pieces of the issues to the public. Given that the only route I see holding promise to help the homeless regain their souls and their lives lies thru community involvement, how do we eradicate the need for PR, educate and involve the community?

Perhaps the need for PR and what it says about our society should have been second on my list. First definitely has to be having a local newspaper that is part of and engaged with their communities, providing the needed forum for an examination of the reality of ours streets and an exchange of ideas – opening the gateway to addressing these pressing issues. We have to get past what people believe and most especially what they want to believe (because of their own personal world view) is the situation; to open their eyes and gain an awareness and a degree of understanding for the nitty-gritty, often dirty facts that underlie homelessness and its street kin – mental illness, drugs etc. We need an informed public on this matter so we do not need to spin what IS. To permit trying new ideas as well as adapting and using methods that have generated positive results elsewhere in the efforts to tackle these dilemmas. Adopting Edison’s attitude that he had not failed a thousand times in trying to invent the light bulb but had merely carried out the necessary thousand experiments, is crucial to making any true progress in addressing these problems. If we cannot honestly discuss: this worked, that did not work, this result wasn’t what we expected – why?, Say… how about trying this?, this kind of worked, and so on; we are going to find ourselves trapped in the quagmire that results from all the churning of the ground we are trying to work on by all the spin that these types of discussions would generate.

Wondering about the why behind the headline “Homeless numbers rise despite abundance of jobs”? Here is a sample or two of the actual reality behind that Why? to think about. What happens to all those functioning users in Ms Daniel’s Perspective as they become less and less functional, starting the fall from home, employment and social network to the harsh loneliness of the streets. Rising job numbers do nothing for them as a job is not the type help and support they need to begin to slowly and painfully turn their lives around. Consider the worker for whom losing their job was an economic disaster that left them having nothing and on the street or the recovering addict whom, in the throes of their addiction, burned all their bridges behind them and now has nothing, no one and are on the streets. Without a phone, an address, a way to be contacted, a way to keep clean and presentable, to have time and energy to look for work after taking care of the necessities of food, water and sleep, without transportation other than by foot, with basically nothing – just how are you to find work? Yes I am aware of Social Assistance. Are you aware of its inadequacies, how far short it falls of providing the basics needed to enable a person to conduct a successful job search? It is just as inadequate, perhaps more maddeningly so, in providing support to help those who find work in meeting their basic needs in a way that does not interfere with keeping their jobs and getting back onto their economic and social feet. Ponder the obstacles that being homeless puts up if you should find work, little things such as adequate sleep, personal hygiene and appearance, food to keep you alive, getting to work. Actually there are separate articles that could be written just on these barriers. To keep this letter from becoming a novel I will leave the reader with a final point to consider. Due to whatever circumstances you find yourself with nothing, absolutely nothing and without family or friends to help. Damage deposit; first months rent; the most basic of furniture, pots and pans, dishes; a phone; old debts; bad credit. Yes, we all at one point started out, but if we are honest we have to acknowledge just how much support we received from family and friends and how important, how necessary that help and support was in getting onto our feet and taking our first steps into our new lives.

I hope that this quick and rather superficial look at just some of the points that flow from considering the implications and issues raised by reading Kevin Gillies’s article serves to let the reader begin to see just how complex the labyrinth of issues and needs connected to homelessness is. You want neat, simple, easy, quick answers? They don’t exist. You want a perfect solution? You are living in a very altered state of reality. We are dealing with people here. It will be messy; mistakes will occur; it will take patience to allow for adequate time frames; it will take and try the patience of the saints in dealing with some of those in need of help; there will be some who cannot or will not be helped. There are many other disagreeable aspects we would rather not have to deal with or face, that must be dealt with or faced in order to bring positive change to these serious issues.

To have success we need the involvement, support and commitment of our entire communities. We need to achieve a public understanding of the underlying realities of the situation through education, insight, perspective and commentary. We need to put aside partisanship, politics and self delusion while dealing with the entrenched vested interests. We cannot be afraid of controversial issues, of facing and dealing with the facts – the un-spun, bare facts. We need to accomplish change, or suffer the insanity of continuing to repeat that which has not only failed to work, but has allowed things to worsen. We need a forum for public discussion, generation of ideas, a steadfastness of purpose and a commitment to action.

Wisdom or lessons can come from strange places. So, let us take to heart the words of Yoda: ”Try not. Do or Do Not. There is no try.” We need to stop hiding behind “trying” and choose. Do Not and accept the costs and consequences. Do and begin reclaiming lost or shattered lives. Do or Do Not. Choose what kind of society you want to live in. DO.