To fix homelessness just isn’t that simple.
So many of these individuals have addiction issues that have led to their being homeless.
Some suffer from mental illness, while others have had things happen in their lives beyond their control.
Here in our community, we have the Upper Room Mission, Salvation Army, Transition House and our churches, not to mention the citizens in Vernon who volunteer hours of service to help people.
We also have the John Howard Society that serves men in need.
With all of this help comes some rules that some of our homeless don’t like and don’t trust, so they prefer their tents and like-minded people.
We have reached a point in our society where homelessness is costing all of us thousands of dollars.
Our towns and smaller cities have to go in and clean up the homeless camps. These camps do not have running water unless there is a creek. Nor do they have washrooms or garbage disposal.
So what are municipalities to do?
Do they create camps with these facilities?
If so, then they also need safe injection sites for users. It’s not just to protect them but also to protect non-users.
Then there would be a need to supervise these sites and policing to check them. This would bring huge costs to the taxpayers. Or do we give them a one-way bus ticket to send them home, hoping their families will try to help them?
There is no easy solution to this issue and until our doctors can give drug users the drugs they need, we cannot reach these people to give them the care and help to cure their illness.
They also must be ready for help to get their lives back.
Remember, if you cannot hold down a job to feed your addiction, you steal to support your habit.
If doctors could help drug users, drug pushers would become unemployed. Our insurance costs would go down as would the homeless count.
All of these things are twisted and entwined in society’s ills today.
R. Haskivich
Vernon
