By Mike Archer. Mayor Banman needs to come clean about whether there is someone he is trying to impress with his weak and tiresome talking points on the Abbotsford Community Services Supportive Housing Proposal or whether he actually believes the words coming out of his mouth.
Either way he has to explain himself to the community – the whole community. Banman seems to be taking a position which is contradicted by the facts and everything we’ve learned about dealing with homelessness; which would see us turn our backs on millions of dollars worth of funding from the provincial government; which rolls back years worth of work by a variety of stakeholders and which, at times, is self-contradictory.
If he is mouthing these nonsensical words in order to get someone’s approval he should come forward and tell us who he is trying to impress. Otherwise we are going to have to conclude that a) he hasn’t a clue what he is saying or doing, or b) he actually believes the nonsense he speaks.
At Wednesday’s open house at the Sally Ann’s Cascade Church Banman once again trotted out all of his old lines:
- It takes a long time to come up with the best solution
- Homelessness is a complicated issue
- The City should get out of the way as it knows nothing about homelessness
- Every group in the community has to be part of the solution
- Other levels of government have to come to the table with funding
- Homeless people themselves have to want to be helped and show responsibility for themselves if they are going to deserve to be helped
Let’s take them one by one because, like a lot of people, I’m getting sick and tired of hearing them.
- It takes a long time to come up with the best solution
We’ve been at this for years. This particular proposal went through all of the procedural hoops it had to, met all of the required criteria and was negotiated with all parties concerned at the table. It is but one small piece in a strategy that, as Councillor Dave Loewen explained on Wednesday, began under former mayor George Ferguson. It’s been a long time and it is the best solution.
- Homelessness is a complicated issue
No it isn’t. All we require are homes for the homeless. That’s as simple and as complicated as it gets Bruce. When you start bringing in moral and religious beliefs; funding formulas for pseudo-government organizations; government programs and resources being devoted to some homeless but not others; politicians who try to please as many individuals, supporters, fundraisers and points of view as possible … that’s when it gets complicated. You make it complicated Bruce.
- The City should get out of the way as it knows nothing about homelessness
Then get out of the way. Shut up. Sit down and let those who know what they’re doing do it.
- Every group in the community has to be part of the solution
That is pure unadulterated BS Bruce. There isn’t a single project the City of Abbotsford has gone ahead with in the last ten years that even had a slim majority of community members supporting it. Some – like Plan A, George Peary’s Deal with the Calgary Flames and his rich local friends, the water shortage/surplus proposal, the YMCA tax giveaway to name but a very few – either went ahead without majority community support or would have if the City hadn’t been forced by law to ask permission.
Leadership is not about waiting as many years as it takes to have everybody agree. If that’s what leadership is anyone could do your job. Leadership is doing the right thing.
- Other levels of government have to come to the table with funding
When you reiterated that line on Wednesday night I heard several people in the room say ‘They’re right here’ or ‘He’s standing right next to them.’ Bruce – BC Housing has $2.4 million in capital funds on the table and another $200,000 per year in operational funding in order to make this happen. Who the hell else do you want to have at this table and how much do you want them to bring?
- Homeless people themselves have to want to be helped and show responsibility for themselves if they are going to deserve to be helped
This is the only line you regularly use which, I think, reveals your true purpose. That statement, no matter which way you phrase it, is the antithesis of the Housing-First philosophy of dealing with homelessness which everyone without a religious axe to grind who deals with homelessness recognizes as the way forward.
What you are saying is that a sober, economically successful, healthy, older white person with a house … like yourself for instance … should decide whether or not those with mental illness, drug addictions, alcohol problems or any of the other symptoms which make them unacceptable to existing faith-based and government financed operations like the Sally Ann deserve to be helped.
They are citizens Bruce. They don’t have to prove themselves to you; a church panel; the Chamber of Commerce; politicians or any self-righteous bastard who wants to keep Fraser Health or BC Housing from helping them.
Neither you nor anyone you answer to politically has any right to stand between these citizens and their rights as Canadians to healthcare services, housing, security from police or any other paramilitary group like Abbotsford’s bylaw department, and the right to common human decency and respect from their fellow citizens.
There are too many good people in this community trying to help their neighbours for you to continue to stand in the way.
Do the right thing. Get out of the way and let the provincial and federal governments come into this community and save these people from a City which seems to want nothing more than to cleanse itself of them.