To the editor:
Reading all the news and decisions made regarding the homeless and encampments and the temporary solutions makes my head spin.
The situation worsens every day and throwing numbers around like they actually have an accurate count of those living on the streets.
You will never have an accurate count as many will never identity themselves and in the end you don’t really care.
There are many solutions to homelessness and helping those dealing mental health and addiction.
All you need is money and you need to spend it and stop pretending your doing anything with silly temporary solutions.
Build a center with enough room to house all the homeless, you know an institution that provides all the services for addiction, mental illness like we used to have in the LPH.
Create a system where there is no option but to be picked up and placed and helped and released with all the necessary tools to be productive and able to survive living a normal healthy life.
The governments spend money everywhere on what they think is important. Would you like to see where this money is spent all over the world.
It would shock you to your core the waste and with no return on those investments.
The return on investing into ending homelessness would be continuous with ending the use of continuous resources being wasted daily with emergency services, hospital stays, shelters and organizations that are working hard but getting nowhere.
We are embarking on spending $58 million on a soccer complex and good for the advocates that are making this happen. It will be amazing for our youth.
While you drive your kids to play soccer you will most likely pass homeless people and when you do think about if all your efforts making the soccer complex happen what you could do with that same effort to end the homelessness crisis.
You see we have the power and influence, but we don’t have the compassion.
It’s time to stop the soft touch approach and get serious with ending this crisis.
Our city council, provincial delegates will continue to make promises they never keep and we as a community we pay the price over and over again with higher taxes that are incurred because the continued spending on ridiculous temporary solutions.
Spend the money once and end the crisis and then you will see the answer to lowering taxes was right there in front of you the whole time.
Clint Harris,
Thunder Bay
