There is a woman who volunteers on Wednesday evenings to help prepare, serve and clean up after the meal for the homeless and other hungry citizens of Abbotsford.

Last week she was not at her best because she had just lost her home to fire. But this week she was back helping with dinner although she is now living in her car.

She is living in her car because, like far to many others, she has a very limited budget which sets severe limits on what she has to spend for rent and has been unable to find any place within her budget.

Governments can come up with whatever plans they want to help people find housing, people can utter whatever platitudes they want about “they’re homeless because they want to be” but the reality of homelessness for many is that there simply is no places available at a price they can afford.

And while that is a reality that politicians and the public need to recognize it is not the reason I sat down to share this story.

I am writing it because the homeless have expressed to me their belief, their concern that it is not healthy (in a variety of ways) for this woman to be living in her car and their anger that nobody in the Christian community of which she is a part is stepping forward to find or offer her a place to stay, even temporarily.

I leave it to you to ponder what it says about Abbotsford as a community that it is the homeless who are upset about the fact this disabled, not young woman is forced to live in her car while the rest of the community seemingly ignores her plight.

Trust me, I have no illusions about life and the homeless. In fact I just posted a piece on thanklessness on www.homelessinabbotsford.com

But the harsh reality, the unpalatable truth for many, is that it is far cheaper and ultimately more productive to house and deal with the homeless.

If you know any smokers and have watched people struggle trying to quit you have watched addiction in action. Do you think smokers started out thinking I want to be addicted to nicotine? No, they smoked to be cool, to control weight, to bug their parents etc….. They gave no thought to becoming an addict. They are just luck that the substance they are addicted to is legal and causes only limited physical and mental impairment.

Addiction is not the question here. Well, except to the extent that it is a “button pushing” issue for many and the cold hard facts of dealing with addiction and the cost of addiction get lost under peoples reaction to their buttons being pushed on addiction. People get stuck in the “I won’t help them bums!” and fail to see, or perhaps that is accept, that helping is cheaper than not helping,

It is just both cheaper and more effective in helping the addict to provide housing (of a sort, I am not speaking of luxurious accommodations) and support. As I say it is one of the great ironies that it would save money to house and help the homeless as opposed to having them on the streets and as I noted if you jail them your cost triples or more.

The other point is that this approach has a much higher success rate in helping addicts get into long term recovery so that not only do you get the huge cost savings when (most) get back to work but you get them contributing their taxes to help pay for the next bunch of idiots to slide into addiction.

But for me the real advantage is that as part of this housing and support we would put in place the housing and support systems for those who are not capable of helping them selves. Some of those you see sitting around the park looking stoned are no such thing, they are just not all there or capable of looking out for themselves and “normal people” avoid them so who else can they hang out with who will not judge them.

I volunteer with the Special Olympics and there are disturbing number of homeless who the only difference between them and people in Special O is that someone was/is there to help the people in Special O while those on the street had/have no one to fight for them.

“Invest in land — The good lord keeps making people, but he don’t make no more land.”

That was the advice of Joseph J. Tallal, Jr a renowned expert in real estate investments. It came to mind as I was reading about the $4.5 million Fraser Health was going to spend knocking down MSA Hospital after the move to the new Hospital.

Their plans for redevelopment of the old hospital sounded well thought out but … what is the need to rush to destruction? Land does not go bad and as Mr. Tallal noted no more land is being made so delaying redevelopment will not result in any loss of value.

Abbotsford is faced by an arduous task – meeting the challenge of the growing numbers of homeless on our streets, as if the abundant numbers of those currently homeless was not challenge enough.

The reality is that other than some “on paper progress” the City continues its failure to provide leadership on this issue.

We do not have the luxury of continuing the behaviours of our current city council. We need facilities and action NOW.

More importantly, if we commit ourselves to the goal of ending homelessness in Abbotsford in ten years, there is no purpose served in spending money constructing buildings that are needed for a relatively short number of years. Also, the maximum space needed, the maximum number of homeless to be worked with will occur in the first years. As we progress to our goal of ending homelessness, as we reduce the number of homeless on our streets, we will need less space, less staff and smaller facilities.

The old hospital is a community asset, a facility whose purpose is to meet a community need. While Abbotsford has outgrown the old hospital’s capacity to serve as a hospital, Abbotsford, as a community, still has a need for the facility to meet a different, but no less meaningful need of the community.

As a community we cannot afford to stand around and allow this rush to destruction of a facility that our community has an urgent need for.

I am not advocating that Fraser Health never redevelop the property. Indeed I would support a fixed period (3 – 4 years) being set for the building to serve to help the community in accomplishing its goal of ending homelessness after which Fraser Health would proceed with redevelopment.

City staff’s report and recommendations on the 18 applications for licensing as a recovery home has just been finished. Just 18 out of how many? 40 to 50 plus? When the City begins to act and close down unlicensed recovery houses we face a flood of people having nowhere to go but onto the streets.

Our streets are full of homeless whose numbers grow daily; we face a flood of homeless from closing unlicensed recovery houses; we need someplace to provide shelter for these people; we need to be able to feed these people, provide hygiene and laundry; we need office space to deal with the challenges of helping the homeless find themselves and homes; we need leadership and to start acting in a responsible manner.

We need to remind Fraser Health that Mental Health and Addictions is part of their turf. That Fraser Health is charged with responsibility for meeting the health needs of the Fraser Health Region including Abbotsford; they are responsible for dealing with Mental Health and Addictions issues affecting Abbotsford.

Fraser Health needs to understand and acknowledge that meeting their duty of care for mental health and addictions requires dealing with the homeless suffering mental illness and/or addiction; that, whether they like it or not, in dealing with the issue of mental health and addiction afflicting the homeless they are part of addressing the issue of homelessness.

It is reasonable to request Fraser Health meet, at least in part, its duty of care to the homeless and homelessness by making MSA Hospital available for a limited period of time to serve on the frontlines of ending homelessness in Abbotsford.

With the numbers of homeless growing and with the potential tsunami of homeless from the closing of unregistered recovery homes the City does not have the luxury to continue business as usual on the homelessness front.

We need leadership. We must begin to get our act together and take action. We need the use of MSA Hospital.

Disagree? Let us hear a plan, another workable suggested course of action, let us debate our course of action – then act.