Editor, The News:
Re: Homeless are not criminals: doctor (The News, April 10).
I read with interest the article featuring Dr. Liz Zubek.
We do have a drop-in centre, the Rainbow Club House, which runs programs and has activities for individuals with mental health challenges.
Having worked for seven years in this community, directly with the homeless and others clients from both the male and female rehab centres, I can assure you they do represent a real threat to our community.
For reasons I never fully understood, these individuals would gladly tell me about their shoplifting at the local pharmacies or stealing from homes that they could access by foot or bike.
One young man riding with a ladder told a friend it was to get into apartments and steal things.
Perhaps these patients thought I lived elsewhere, but I do live in Maple Ridge.
I do not know why the Caring Place is allowed to stay.
Many of us feel uncomfortable even taking our kids out in certain parts of town.
Watching someone shoot-up behind a fast-food restaurant is not what I want my kids to see.
What is the mayor planning to do about this?
These are my comments and represent my feelings as a mom.
I just happen to have had a lot of experience with the homeless and don’t have such a sunny outlook as Dr. Zubek.
Dr. Lyn Killick
Maple Ridge
