City not doing enough on homeless, drug addicted
Re: Your article Thursday, Jan. 20, page 4 “Crime safety & homelessness most important issues facing Duncan: survey”:
As far as I can see all Ms. Staples has done is support free injection sites and support the government’s buying or renting rundown hotels or building container towns to hide the addicted and homeless. People staying in these places are often subjected to the criminal element that is attracted to these areas creating unsafe zones for the very people they are supposed to protect.
All that has been accomplished is to attract many new addicted, homeless persons to the Duncan area from other towns and cities.
I go by the “safe” injection site on York Street every morning and see many new faces every day. I also see the poor business people on the Trans-Canada corridor cleaning up after the night’s activities of the homeless and addicted early every morning.
I have seen Mayor Siebring and Councillor Tek Manhas helping clean up but I wonder if Mayor Michelle Staples has ever joined in?
I would wager that well over half of the people I see are not from the Cowichan Valley.
Contributing to their addiction and hiding them in makeshift shelters is not the answer.
We need hospitals that can help them with their addictions and mental health issues on a long term basis.
We need laws that can get them into these hospitals for the help they so desperately need.
John Money
Duncan