To the editor,
Re: Council asking for $550K for drop-in centre, July 12.
You want more homeless? This is how you get more homeless.
Hire more city staff to expand the reach of city social planner John Horn, all of whom, according to councillor Jerry Hong, must be well paid. What’s a mere $650,000 of which two-thirds will be spent on just salaries for the new staff, on a program with no defined objectives or measurable outcome? Are the homeless, under the wise tutelage of four more city staff, suddenly going to resume their education? Or seek out training for one of the many available entry-level jobs? Will they clean up their personal lives and refrain from drug and alcohol use? Or perhaps they will become volunteers themselves, tirelessly giving back to a community that gave them hope?
Why is there no realization that the attraction of one of the most favourable cities and climates in the country, when combined with a bureaucracy that exploits their victimhood and supports the legitimacy and continuation of regressive and destructive lifestyles will lead not to less homelessness in Nanaimo, but rather more.
Randy O’Donnell, Nanaimo
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