Editor, The News:
I heard that the city is considering the location next to the Alouette Animal Hospital, and day care centre to build a low-barrier homeless shelter.
Please do not build there.
What makes you think it’s OK to build this establishment 500 metres down the road from the first property – Quality Inn and The Pantry restaurant (my work) – when that was completely opposed by your community?
What makes you think that this location will be any different?
It’s next to a daycare, an animal hospital with narcotics on site and a salmon stream, nestled in a residential area.
Please don’t go polluting that area with such a project. It’s the wrong place.
A much better location to integrate these people and provide comfortable living environment for everyone around would be to use the women’s prison space at 280th Street. There’s lots of space there and you can always provide shuttle service into town for these people.
We know of a company that will donate a shuttle bus. The land there can also be used for integrated farming models to get these people working and making a purpose out their lives.
These people need boundaries and proper support systems. Our government has to stop enabling the problem. You can’t just write it off as mental illness or a disability. We have to go about this responsibly and with compassion, starting with the right, supportive location.
If you want to build a successful and sustainable integration and treatment centre with supportive housing that is a better fit for our community and that actually helps these people get integrated, then please take to heart what I and the rest of our community are saying here.
Keara Baggio
Maple Ridge