By James Breckenridge. Considering that City Council’s answer to the questions “If not Now, When? If not Here, Where?” posed to Council at the public hearing on the ACS 20 bed Housing First proposal was, stripped to its bare bones, “Never, unless forced! Then – ADBA! [Any District But Abbotsford] it is no surprise the homeless find themselves wondering:
Having 1) ensured there is nowhere for the homeless to go, other than somewhere else on the streets of Abbotsford; 2) ensured their prey cannot escape them by transitioning off the streets using the proven housing first approach; 3) confirmed their willingness to act with total irrationality with respect to the homeless and the issue of homelessness …
… how long can it be before City Council returns to chasing the homeless around Abbotsford, ignoring the fact that more than a decade of experience demonstrates that this approach accomplishes nothing other than allowing the problem to worsen …
.
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… and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around and around…….
… Abbotsford. Ad nauseam.
Pool betting is that the City will welcome the return of the Wild Hunt before March 1, 2014.
Pool betting also favours the gentleman who relocated his camp in order to secure first in line status in case Council decided to pursue services and housing based on best practices that have been demonstrated to be effective and financially prudent being the first victim of a renewed Hunt.
Hmm? You don’t suppose that those squandering spendthrifts who voted NO did so because they were unable to vote for a course of action that was ‘financially prudent’?
Be that as it may, pool betting is that this individual is at the top of council’s new hit list since the location of his camp is a pointed reminder of yet another ‘Folly’ by Abbotsford civic misgovernment.
Are the homeless correct? Is the course indicated by the betting in the Pool correct? Will Abbotsford’s Mayor and City Council add to Abbotsford’s national and international reputation for pointless, reprobate, simpleminded behaviour by resuming the City’s Crusade against the homeless?
Of course the question may well become moot, should Pivot seek and secure an injunction against the City starting a new Crusade against the homeless until the court rules on the question as to whether the 2009 ruling by the BC Court of Appeals, that the homeless have a right to camp in a City’s parks if the City is not making sufficient effort to provide affordable housing the homeless can access, applies to the current state of affairs – vis-à-vis the homeless – in Abbotsford.
Given City Council’s demonstration at the February 17, 2014 council meeting that, not only is the City not acting to provide affordable, accessible housing but, the city is actively preventing such housing from being built …
… none should be surprised if the court issues an injunction preventing the city putting the health and lives of the homeless at risk by chasing them around Abbotsford. Nor should anyone be surprised if the court, in light of council’s behaviour, upholds the right of the homeless to camp in any of Abbotsford’s parks and not be harassed by the City or its APD.
So that, while there may be no homeless housed in their Backyards, there may well be homeless housed in camps in City Parks.
A situation that potentially will motivate mayor and council to abandon their irrational behaviour.
