Editor:
I am very glad that there is a place for someone who is homeless to spend the night when it is deemed “extreme-weather’ out and understand that this service is run mostly by volunteers.
From what I read these places are only open, though, from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., and then what?
Does this mean you have to be up by 6:30 a.m., and are sent out into the pitch dark, freezing cold, where nothing is open yet, except the fast-food restaurants.
Are there day shelters, or do you spend your day seeking public places, hoping not to be asked to leave?
It seems that governments at all levels are using these restaurants, along with malls and libraries, to provide shelter in the daytime.
I also wonder why these beds are only available when it’s extremely cold.
Sleeping outside in cold, hot or rainy weather, any night, should be considered ‘extreme’ and be unacceptable.
Every politician, from every level of government, should have to spend one week living rough.
Let’s even provide them with, $50, no car or cellphone, in the fall, trying to figure out where to get a meal and bed for the night, and have to worry about their safety.
Isn’t it time to stop studying, forming task forces, etc., to figure out how to end homelessness. It takes a roof over your head first. How productive would any of us be in society, if we didn’t at least have shelter.
For the people who say that this will cost too much, you are already paying more now.
Repeated use of our emergency services, police, hospital stays, break-ins to homes and businesses, theft, etc., is very expensive and obviously hasn’t fixed the problem.
Google Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. “Maslow’s theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs.”
Basically, to become a productive member of society.
Ruth Edwards, White Rock
