More National Coverage Of Abbotsford Homeless Crisis

This week’s Today column, Next Steps, by Pastor Ward Draper of The 5 and 2 Ministries has been picked up by The Huffington Post.

Here’s a recap of the coverage to date:

On Thursday, HuffPo published the column under the headline, “How Should We Deal With Homeless Camps in Abbotsford?”

This is the latest in a long string of provincial, national and international coverage of the way Abbotsford treats its homeless. It is the largest amount of coverage the homeless crisis in Abbotsford has received since 2008 when then councillor Bruce Beck, together with councillor John Smith and Abbotsford Downtown Business Association president Bob Bos tried to prevent Pastor Christoph Reiners from feeding the homeless.

After the Abbotsford Chicken Manure Homeless Incident, first revealed by James Breckenridge on Abbotsford Today in June garnered worldwide attention, Abbotsford Today‘s revelations that the Abbotsford Salvation Army knew about the City’s plan and was in agreement with it, brought more attention to the City.

Last week The Tyee picked up and reported on Pastor Jesse Wegenast’s Today column, A Crisis Of Conscience

The illiterate and ill-informed attack by the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association (ADBA) on the proposal by Abbotsford Community Services (ACS) to build a Supportive Housing Project in order to help some of downtown Abbotsford’s homeless men off the streets then took center stage.

The organization’s petition was released in a barely legible format riddled with errors in English and in fact. A second petition was then released, with some of the falsehoods removed but little improvement in the grammar or spelling.

Some have asked whether or not the signatures from both versions will be counted and, if so, whether or not they can be considered legitimate if they were collected based on the incorrect statements in the petitions.

Advocates for the homeless are working with the Pivot Legal Society on two lawsuits designed to force the City to abide by the law and allow its citizens to have basic human rights and healthcare services available to other Canadians as well as a Human Rights Tribunal complaint over their treatment of the poor.

The coverage in provincial and national media continues unabated with the Vancouver Province this week devoting a front page and page three to the Abbotsford homelessness crisis.

Both Vancouver dailies have given Abbotsford’s homeless crisis prominent coverage and continue to follow the issue closely.

For the latest on the Abbotsford Chicken Manure Homeless Incident simply click here.

For the latest on the ACS Supportive Housing Debate simply click here.