Full federal, provincial support needed to fix homelessness
Re: Letters on homelessness on Lewis Street
Many people are writing to express their frustration as people live without housing on Lewis Street. People living without housing are also frustrated.
There is a solution: provide safe, secure, affordable, supported housing for everyone who needs it. Housing with boundaries, housing with responsibility, housing with (where needed) plans and supports for recovery.
Medicine Hat Alberta has done this for years. Alberta has a different funding arrangement for housing and social services than B.C.
In the Cowichan we need the full support of federal and provincial governments. Support easily found when forests burn or rivers flood and entire communities are relocated and homes rebuilt.
Support that is nowhere to be seen on Lewis Street, except at our overwhelmed and undersized shelter.
Want to be effective in expressing your frustration at the lack of support? At people being left in demeaning, dehumanizing, unsafe and unsanitary condition on Lewis Street? Find ways to creatively engage our federal and provincial governments in immediate solutions.
Time to stop accepting helplessness on homelessness and blaming the truly helpless for their plight. Time to stop blaming the victims. Time to stop pitting neighbour against neighbour. Time to call our governments to account.
Keith Simmonds
Duncan