Editor, The News:
Re: Modular homes won’t help homeless, says former Maple Ridge councillor.
People are not against the homeless. They want these folks into detox, then have them into the community.
Can you really blame a senior for not wanting a drug house right beside them? Or a young family with a couple of small children?
We buy or rent our houses to raise our families in a safe environment. When our children were young and we were buying our first home, we checked for a safe area. Didn’t you?
We homeowners are paying good taxes and we want to be safe. Is that so hard to understand? Why can’t the politicians not understand this?
There is lots and lots of land at Riverview. The housing should be built there. If the buildings are old, then rebuild them.
All the marijuana taxes could be going to deal with the drug problem. This is not going away anytime soon and the government needs to deal with it once and for all, not eight or 10 beds at a time.
This scenario is being played out all over the province: Prince George, Whalley, Abbotsford, Victoria and East Vancouver.
Throwing up cheap housing, then leaving it for the citizens of the community to deal with the fallout – theft, needles and dirty condoms in our children’s playgrounds – is not the answer.
Once these so-called homes go up, you can’t go back, they are there for good. Yes, the government will have staff on, but for how long?
Once they want to cut money, then that is where they will cut. Then you have a ghetto in your neighborhood.
I believe in this strongly. I know it has torn the community apart, but most people are not against helping the homeless – the seniors, the young mothers with children, the disabled.
Let’s face it, a mother with a couple of small children or teens is not going to go into these low-barrier homeless shelters, with druggies bringing their drugs in. These are for the drug users.
There is a place for them and that is Riverview and into detox first. They are then welcome into the community.
Yvonne McDonald
Maple Ridge