Editor:
Re: Homeless claims unjustifiable, Oct. 31 letters.
I wanted to thank you for running Dr. Jeff Shantz’s letter regarding homeless people in our community and how the homeless have been treated. As Shantz points out, these are residents of our communities regardless where we live.
It has never been true that we are all born equal. I am constantly aware that “but by the grace of God go I,” in that I may have had a disability or trauma, or simply bad luck that put me out onto the street.
As Shantz points out, many are working poor, which is entirely understandable when ordinary houses in areas where there is work cost $1 million plus. Only those with really good jobs can afford rents that take most of your income.
When the homeless organize, they are attacked by people like columnist Tom Fletcher (Businesses, residents plagued by squatters, Oct. 26). In Elizabethan times, the poor were simply put on carts and shipped to another community. Remember, it was just a little over five years ago that Abbotsford sprayed chicken manure on a homeless camp.
I think it is shameful that in a country as rich as Canada that everyone does not have a home. We can and must do better! No one should have to live in a tent.
Fraser Crinklaw, Surrey
