Issues, Provincial

Criminalizing Homelessness.

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The hypocrisy, cynicism, imperiousness and ignorance in the BC Liberal governments announced new homeless policy demonstrates the Liberals apparent lack of either the leadership or ability to deal with the challenges facing the Province of BC.

Minister of Housing and Social Development Rich Coleman acknowledged the punitive nature of this new policy in his statement “…more punitive things were being contemplated…”

I would like Minister Coleman to explain why the Liberal government feels the need to inflict punishment on the homeless. One would have thought the homeless faced enough challenges in simply surviving without the need of punitive government policy.

Coleman said “The question for me is, can we find a piece of legislation where I can save a few more lives?”

Mr. Coleman is the Minister in charge of Housing and Social Development and he needs a piece of punitive new legislation to save lives?

Might I suggest that he build more affordable housing and open more shelter beds? Exactly how is dragging the homeless off to shelters going to work when there are not enough shelter beds for all the homeless on the streets; what is accomplished dragging someone to a full shelter?

Or perhaps the government plans to build “emergency” emergency shelters out in the boondocks to which the police can haul any homeless found on the streets off to? I am sure Mr Coleman and the Liberals can find, or have found, copies of the plans for the Japanese Internment camps from WWII.

Might I further suggest that making the necessary changes within Social Development, to inject an element of reality (safe, healthy housing for $375 a month? In what alternate reality?) into their policies and to focus on helping, not hindering, those in need of assistance, would be a far better use of Mr. Coleman’s time and save far more lives that enacting punitive legislation

I would also point out to Mr. Coleman that his ministry does not exist in a vacuum when it comes to the homeless and those in need of assistance from his ministry.

His colleague the Minister of Health has a significant effect on the homeless through Mental Health and Addictions. Currently Mental Health is significantly underfunded and lacks programs designed to provide services to the homeless community. Compounding these problems is that Mental Health had Addictions added to its responsibilities without any additional funding to provide the array of services needed to stop recycling the addicted and provide the support and services to permit the addicted to find recovery and wellness.

Mr. Coleman would save far more lives by prevailing upon the health minister to provide the funding needed to Mental Health and Addictions, to permit them to meet the Mental Health and Addictions service needs of the homeless and all British Columbians.

Speaking of saving lives, it was the failure by the Liberal government to provide needed services that left the woman who burned to death last winter lacking the services and support to get off the streets. In the final analysis the woman died from government neglect.

“… that there is a safe place for them to spend the night …” (Attorney General Mike) de Jong said, emphasizing the Liberal government’s lack of comprehension of the realities of life for the homeless.

If the ministers and the government had a modicum of understanding they would know that shelters do not equate to safety. There are those on the street who, if forced to a shelter, would make the shelter unsafe for everyone else there. For some a shelter is the most unsafe or unhealthiest place to force them to be.

This proposed law has the potential to cost far more homeless lives than it saves.

Are the police going to return the homeless to the original spot they shanghaied them from? The homeless know their territory and the places within that territory to best survive cold weather. If the police abandon them at a shelter – when the homeless decline to be coerced and walk away from the shelter they will be in an area they do not know significantly reducing their ability to survive.

This piece of punitive legislation will also drive some homeless into hiding, where they run a greater risk of freezing to death. My homeless acquaintances are perfectly capable of surviving the cold – unless disturbed by the police.

Indeed, several homeless friends wanted me to point out to Minister Coleman that in this climate the wet is far more of a threat to their lives than cold is.

During our last provincial election I told a local Liberal candidate that if the province was ever serious about addressing the issues involved with homelessness to give me a call. The fact I have never received that phone call is no great surprise. The ideology of this government and their actions on this issue demonstrate the Liberals are not about actual solutions but about political posturing and the need to be seen doing something.

This proposed policy is about hiding the problem or giving the appearance of addressing homelessness issues; it is not about solutions.

Our current crop of politicians are about playing it safe and giving the impression of addressing issues in order to get re-elected. Which is why politicians are not about solving difficult issues since that would require innovation, change, accepting the need for mistakes to learn and progress and a willingness to risk not getting re-elected in order to pursue solutions.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.

And no, it is not a matter of having an overblown sense of myself to tell our local MLA to call me if the Liberals ever want to actually address homelessness and its travelling companions mental health, addictions and poverty.

There are proven best practices to address homelessness, addiction and mental illness and it has been demonstrated that these approaches and practices work. I do not have to be brilliant to be able to know what actions our government needs to take; all I need is an open mind, some research, a willingness and ability to ask questions – and listen to the answers even if they are not what I want to hear, integrity, ethics and honour.

Despite government claims of lack of funds it is not about a lack of money to fund the needed Mental Health and Addictions programs, housing or needed homeless initiatives. It is about priorities.

The Liberals manage to find the funds to pay for Olympic venues, roads, bridges, etc then claim a lack of funding for mental health, addictions and homelessness?

Clearly it is not a matter of funds but of priorities, with the Liberal government’s priority being their ideology and material things over people, ethics, integrity and honour.

Speaking about money matters, homelessness is one of the issues that expose the reality that the belief that the Liberals are good money managers or financially responsible is false.

Study after study has found that it is cheaper to find solutions to homelessness; that governments currently spend more on homelessness (on a per person basis) than it would require be spent to implement solutions that reduce homelessness and help the homeless reclaim their lives.

While BC housing has done a reasonable job of increasing the stock of affordable housing it has failed to address the numbers involved and the need for increased funding.

On the other hand BC housing has wasted and continues wasting funds on programs that do little more than recycle the homeless through the system, generate pretty numbers that give the impression something is being accomplished and contribute substantially to the profitability of those in the poverty industry.

It is not the homeless who need punitive measures taken to punish them for living in a province where the high cost of living makes housing unaffordable for too many – it is the politicians.

ALL the politicians deserve punitive measures for putting ideology, political posturing, re-election, and political power ahead of the wellbeing of people.

The proposed legislation is just more of the same old same old and the bottom line is that doing more of the same proven ineffectual behaviours and actions will only produce more ineffectual results.

As Will Rogers stated “When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

It is time we stopped digging.

Municipal, Snafu

Abbotsford financial woes solved?

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It was a great relief to read the news that the City of Abbotsford’s financial crisis was resolved and that there would be no need to impose the 2 cents a litre gas tax or to impose more than modest property tax increases.

Obviously the financial problems and capital needs (road repairs and maintenance, the new water source, sewer and waste treatment, etc) have been solved … right? If these money issues had not been resolved Abbotsford would not have been spending money badly needed elsewhere on an unneeded play structure … would it?

After all, anyone with a single functional brain cell and the smallest iota of responsibility would have enough common sense not to fritter away money needed to keep Abbotsford operating on a frivolous toy.

This leaves the only conclusion as, in some mysterious way, all the financial and capital challenges that were facing the City of Abbotsford have been resolved and that the city no longer needs a large injection of cash.

I suppose alternatively … if the financial and capital challenges facing the City of Abbotsford have NOT been resolved, one must conclude from this purchase that Abbotsford city council and city staff are completely irresponsible, do not care about Abbotsford or its taxpayers, incompetent and/or brain dead and have no contact with financial reality or reality period.

If the financial and capital challenges have been successfully resolved then the mayor, council and staff deserve our appreciation, thanks and support.

If the financial and capital challenges have NOT been resolved then the mayor, council and staff deserve to be removed from the city’s payroll. Taxpayers deserve the resignations of mayor and council and the firing of staff responsible for this unnecessary and thoughtless expenditure.

Since such a course of action would require a sense of responsibility and caring for Abbotsford and its taxpayers that Abbotsford’s elected politicos have repeatedly demonstrated a complete lack of, I won’t be holding my breath.

I will however, be writing to Gordon Campbell, Mike de Jong, John Van Dongen and the Minister of Community and Rural Development (Bill Bennett) to point out this further evidence of Abbotsford’s civic government’s lack of financial planning, discipline and responsibility.

I will be asking that, in light of Abbotsford city hall’s and city council’s demonstrated irresponsibility and lack of financial ability, for the future of the City of Abbotsford and its citizens they refuse to enable council’s spendthrift behaviours and spending addiction by just saying no to the 2 cent a litre gas tax. I would suggest others contact provincial officials with this request as well.

City council and staff must be compelled to start acting responsibly and thoughtfully on financial matters – or replaced. Otherwise someone will be buying the Safari Kid Zone from the trustee handling the bankruptcy of the City of Abbotsford.

Issues

The Ugly Economic Reality

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The Canadian Payroll Association’s survey found 59 % of Canadians would have trouble making ends meet if their paycheque was delayed by even one week.

The implications of a serious financial crisis inherent in this result are disturbing and raise serious questions about the need for financial and societal changes. If a one week delay causes 59% of Canadians trouble making ends meet, what would the fallout be if they missed a paycheque.

The possibilities for serious economic fallout increase if one considers the two growing subgroups that were left out of the survey on the status of Canadian wage earners.

The first subgroup is those Canadians who have trouble making, or cannot make, ends meet even if their paycheque is on time.

I ran out of gas Thursday evening. Not because, as some wiseacres have suggested, I cannot read a gas gauge but because I had been down to my last 9 cents for a week.

I had been striving to stretch my last tank of gas through to the next morning as my paycheque would be deposited shortly after midnight Friday and I would have funds for more gas.

Instead I had to glide the Cavalier into a visitor spot in front of an apartment building and walk off in search of someone with a gas can and a few litres of gasoline they could spare.

70% of my budget goes to cover shelter costs leaving 30% or about $350.

Subtract the $50 a month it costs to swim, swimming permits me to walk by keeping my back toned and prevent it from crippling me, and you are down to $300. Subtract the $95 a month for insurance and $205 remains.

This works out to $51 a week for gas; an amount that sounds like plenty until you consider the rising cost of gas and the fact that any additional costs come out of these monies.

So far this month I have had to invest $40 for brake pads and another $20 in oil, fuel injector cleaner and gas conditioner. I really should have the gas tank drained, the fuel injectors cleaned and a tune-up. All of which are well beyond my ability to pay for.

Reducing me to $145 or $36 per week for gas; reducing the distance I can travel.

While the brake pads etc represent a one time expense, every month contains the need for some form of one time expense. The fact the Cavalier has needed so many one time expenses has put me behind on “normal” one time expenses eg pain medication.

Yes, I know that the car is a major expense but with no viable transportation alternative I need the car to get to work, to my volunteer/service commitments and to all the other aspects of the community I am involved with.

Also, as the reader can see from the budget numbers, there is no money in my budget for food. The car is necessary to get to free meals and free grocery sources in order to eat.

Thursday’s lack of gas flows mainly from the steadily increasing gas prices. The Cavalier does not get as good mileage as the Duster did, but it has a back seat I can sleep in/on – which is an important consideration in my overall financial reality.

The Abbotsford recreation credit had gotten me a three month pool pass, providing a $50 a month cushion. Running out of gas Thursday is not surprising as this is the month the three month pool pass expired and I was out of pocket the $50 for a pool pass.

I must use gas to get to work and to get food to eat. This leaves me with limited distances I can travel forcing me to reduce, perhaps end, my community involvements. It also leaves me facing the probable need to give up volunteering or doing service work as it renders me unable to get to these commitments; a situation neither healthy for me nor helpful to the organizations or community.

To me, and too many others, it does not matter if our paycheques are on time – our current financial situations are unsustainable; we are in a death spiral down and out onto the streets of Abbotsford and homelessness.

Mathematically it is only a matter of time until I (we) find ourselves in the other subgroup the survey overlooked: those with employment and income insufficient to be able to cover the high cost of shelter in Abbotsford or the Greater Vancouver Area.

In one of the twisted realities of this equation, once I fall out of housing into my car again I will be better off economically. While joining the growing community of Canadians living in their vehicle will result in the loss of the portion of my income I receive to cover shelter costs, I will gain back the shelter costs I pay out of other income and so be 100% better off, doubling my disposable income.

Before the numbers catch up to me and put me onto the streets I am looking to for a suitable van, in good shape and at a ridiculously good price to outfit as a mobile home. Cell phone technology, the portability of current computers and mobile internet make functioning with a van (or even the Cavalier) as one’s home quite viable.

The van would be the preferred solution from the point of view of ability to organize and the comfort of long term liveability. Important considerations in light of my lacking the energy, will or heart to make the long struggle back into what is considered proper housing until my personal economic circumstances change to a point where housing is and will remain viable affordable option.

While this is not warm and fuzzy or pleasant it is Reality and will remain Reality for a growing numbers of Canadians until we, as a country and society, decide it is an unacceptable Reality and make the required changes.

Until such time – Wanted: Van …

Issues, Poverty

Was Mr. Rushton, Was.

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Success was a matter of hard work. Today hard work may well only permit you to keep your head barely above water. Today the difficulties in breaking out of poverty and those who find they cannot break out vastly outnumber the stories of someone who rose from rags to riches.

I speak from experience having had to start my life over due to mental illness.

The first time around hard work did lead to success. Of course salaries then allowed me not only to pay my living expenses but save enough to go to University and graduate without any debt. Articling and becoming a Chartered Accountant, moving into business all were made much easier because I had no debt, was young and there were simply more opportunities then.

Contrast that with today’s graduates who graduate owing tens of thousands of dollars they must repay. I could save money for school working 40 hours a week; throw in 20 hours of overtime and I could save enough in a year to attend University and do the four year course in three years because I had saved that much money in a year.

There are people working close to 60 hours a week in Abbotsford just to earn enough to cover the cost of living, particularly housing. Worse they have to juggle their schedule because they are working 3 jobs since they only get 20 hours per job so that their employer can avoid paying benefits.

Throw in the fact that in BC we have the highest cost of living in Canada and the lowest minimum wage and you begin to get an impenetrable barrier.

Close to 80% of my income this time around goes for housing. The other 20% disappears before my other expenses are covered forcing me to decide which items I can afford and what items I must do about.

I need a car to get to work but insurance and gas take the lions share of that 20%, but without getting to work and getting paid I cannot cover my housing costs which would put me on the street homeless (been there, had that happen) leading to a torturous, years long journey just to get back to my current position.

Currently my car needs work but there is no money (OK I have 9 cents to my name) for parts or repairs. Leaving me hoping, praying the car continues to run long enough for me to scrounge up enough money to keep it running.

Hunting for a better job? I cannot afford ink for my printer to send out resumes and/or cover letters.

I could go on citing the differences in my experience between starting out the first time and starting over/out this time but I will spare the reader so as not to lose them. Suffice it to say that I have found a vast difference between several decades ago and today.

Luck and who you know is today a better predictor of ones getting one’s life in order than hard work. It does not matter who is responsible for this state of affairs; something is wrong when hard work and effort will often do no more than keep your head barely above water.

As to poverty and crime be glad that poverty is not the root of crime since with my background and experience it is integrity and honour that stands between me and wealth. Every time I hear of people losing their savings, several perfectly legal methods of transferring wealth to myself pop into my mind and I have to remind myself that it is not all about “what I have.”

I do not begrudge people their success. I do however object to those who use the power and influence that comes with success to deny others an opportunity for success.

Having the government change the rules to give employers advantages that permit union busting and the lowering of wages; or allowing employers to limit all employees to only 20 hours a week to avoid paying benefits thus complicating peoples lives because they have to work several jobs to get 40 hours (or however many hours are needed) work and reducing their quality of life; having government raise, year after year, tuition fees to pay for tax cuts rather than keep them at an affordable level; ….

One of the few areas of our society and economy that rewards on ability and hard work is the illegal drug business. It is this open opportunity that has created a vast pool of workers to draw upon to replace people lost to the natural attrition inherent in the illegal drug business. One of the reasons that hard work pays off is that the business operates outside government regulation. As a result of this there are no rules or barriers to protect the successful from those looking to advance.

We are forcing our children to assume large debt loads to obtain an education at the same time we are loading our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great- great-grandchildren with government debt to finance our “successful” life styles.

Success or continued success that comes at the cost of others wellbeing and quality of life is unacceptable.

During our recent unprecedented worldwide economic boom homelessness, poverty and the numbers of poor rose.

Far too often these days one can make the effort to change who and what you are, work hard and still be unable to achieve much more than survival. A reality attested to by the recent survey conducted by the payroll company which found over 70% of Canadians wage earners are only one paycheque away from financial disaster.

Suggesting that more and more today the fault is not in ourselves but in our stars – or more accurately our society and government.

What do I want? I want to have the same opportunity to get ahead through ability and hard work that I had the first time I set out in search of Success.

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COLUMN: Don’t begrudge success, because it’s in us all

Mark Rushton

My buddy, with a smile on his face, asked “Where’s the fancy truck” when I rolled up beside him in my nine-year old pickup.

“You’re lookin’ at it,” I replied, “and right now I probably couldn’t get enough for it to buy a decent bicycle and replace the eight-foot row boat that somebody swiped.”

In other words, my friend reads the letters to the editor.

And I couldn’t help pointing out to him that if I had said poor people were to blame for all the crime and theft, I’d have been pilloried.

That’s the problem with assumptions … whether it be criminals or my possessions … because to assume is to make an ass(of)U(or)me. And it’s not me, because while I may not be the brightest light on the Christmas tree, I have been polishing the bulb for a lot of years. And I try to choose words carefully so sometimes what’s between the lines is more important than what’s in them.

So I don’t, and will never, believe that poverty is the root of crime.

Yes, poverty can be one of the causes, but so is greed. In fact, the majority of crime is instigated by money, large sums of it, and the people perpetrating it are anything but poor or uneducated.

However, I don’t take issue with poverty, and in fact, think it awful there are people who truly have to scrabble hand to mouth.

But at the same time, don’t preach to me that people’s success is the cause of flaws in our society.

Hard as it may be for some to accept, it is the successful in society who pay for the social safety net that provides for those who need it the most.

Ask anyone who makes a good income to tell you how much tax they pay – tax that provides hospitals, schools, social assistance, etc.

There is no shame in being successful. And there is no restriction in our society to anyone who truly wants to be successful.

Some fritter away their day watching TV, or incessantly beating out inanities on Twitter; others become preoccupied with bemoaning their lot in life and never attempt to rise above it.

For others, I readily admit, there are difficulties in breaking out of poverty. But for every one of them, there is a story of someone who rose from rags to riches.

And each and every one of those who have made life a success will rage at the thought that their efforts, their drive and their success are the cause of the flaws of our society, or that they should feel guilt, because for every dollar they take in, another goes out to benefit those in need.

That’s how society works in a democracy, which flawed though it may be, has fewer people on the poverty line than in those countries which are not.

Am I ashamed of what I have? An unadulterated NO! Should others who through skill, good fortune, education, or yes, even family assistance, be ashamed of what they have accomplished or what they have? Again ‘no’! And to be honest, we’d all like more!

Poverty is both a state of being, and a state of mind – neither of which is good.

But being poor does not make one a criminal, nor does it take away one’s dignity.

What is important is pride of self, and if one applies that pride, one is truly never poor. And if someone is willing to work as hard, or harder, as they think they possibly can, poverty can become a thing of the past.

Will everyone climb out of it? No.

But those who have, those who may never have faced it, and those who are successful are not the cause of the flaws in our society.

The cause is within each and every one of us who doesn’t make the effort to change who and what we are.

Issues, Municipal, Snafu

An Abbotsford Fable

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Once upon a time there was a poor troll who lived under a village bridge. The sheriff’s men and village workers were going to move the troll along “for his own good” but being wonderful human beings they were concerned about the poor troll and took along some people to reach out and find the troll a more acceptable place to live. And the troll lived happily ever after in a castle on the mountain.

The preceding tale bears as much correlation to reality as the fairy tale in the September 11th Abbotsford News. As do any of the previous same spin, different bridge tales.

It would appear that whoever is responsible for this ongoing PR campaign featuring this series of same story, different bridge “news” (and I use the term news very loosely) articles are operating under the assumption that Lenin was correct and “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

No matter how often the local papers repeat this everything is wonderful mantra, that a homeless person “was put in contact with resources, and will have a more acceptable place to live”, it will not cause the suitable housing or the supportive services to help the homeless stay housed and get their lives back together to appear. In real life, no fairy godmothers will appear with their magic wands.

Unfortunately there is also a complete lack of leadership and willpower to take the actions necessary to do more than recycle the homeless through the system.

Depressingly, the knowledge and best practices exist to reduce homelessness and bring about recovery and wellness for those dealing with mental illness and/or addiction. But until we have the will to subvert the dominant paradigm (put an end to the status quo) and drive change forward homelessness, mental illness and addiction will continue to be a bane of our communities and society.

It won’t be easy, it will take effort and require change but it can be done. We start by hanging a question mark on the things we know or have long taken for granted.

What happened to the prior gentleman who, for his own wellbeing, was removed from under the Peardonville overpass and put into contact with resources? Not as easy as a photo op and recycling an old story, but much more informative.

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living. Change: clearer vision, fresh hope – and out of hope, progress.

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Finding a better place to live

By Rochelle Baker – Abbotsford News

Abbotsford Police officers crawled into the debris-strewn crawl space under the bridge deck of the Clearbrook overpass on Thursday morning.

Gravel trucks on Highway 1 thundered past just feet below, blasting dust up and onto the narrow ledge packed tight with the carcasses of wrecked bikes, bags of garbage and broken bottles.

Officers were there to help the city workers clean up the site and try to convince the man who called the bunker his home to seek alternative shelter.

Two Salvation Army workers were also on scene to liaise with the man.

Const. Ian MacDonald said such camps are safety hazards that have resulted in tragedy before.

In February a homeless man perished in a fire underneath the Peardonville highway overpass after heating his shelter with open fuel sources.

The city, police, and outreach workers try to make contact with people living in homeless camps and find them more suitable housing prior to cleaning them up, said MacDonald.

“My understanding is we encountered one individual [Thursday] morning and he was put into contact with resources, and will have a more acceptable place to live.”