LETTER – The solution no one wants to say out loud

As the recent fires demonstrate, it’s only a matter of time before the myriad bullshit associated with homelessness causes significant destruction to homes and properties.

Yesterday, I saw a Facebook post showing a woman’s car and front windscreen caved in – a homeless person walked in front of her as she was driving in Kamloops. This sketchy behaviour happens daily.

We must admit that the activist approach to addressing “homelessness” is not working. If it were, we would see decreasing data indicators, and a reduction of all the societal ills and chaos these individuals bring with them. The current approach has cost billions of dollars over decades.

Other states and cities have failed harder than we have. Yet we continue with the same tired approaches. Interior Health wants to wait and see what happens before signing off on the bylaw proposal. We’ve already seen what happens. Decriminalization has been the de facto standard for quite some time, as enforcement was rare even prior to the change.

If you, Interior Health, or any other person wants to see what happens, look to Portland, Seattle, Sacramento, San Francisco and other cities to witness chaos on a grand scale, enabled by the same tired policies that Interior Health and elected officials are championing. EMT and fire responders shouldn’t be run off their asses every day injecting Narcan into drug addicts and putting out encampment fires.

First, let’s dispense with the term homelessness – this is a euphemism for open air drug scenes, untreated drug addiction and mental illness.

Having a home has very little to do with the cause of the chaos we see around us, demonstrated simply by the fact that offering a home to these individuals will not resolve these issues. As we have seen recently in the DTES, many refuse offers of shelter, claiming that SROs are dirty and shelters are not safe – as if the sidewalks are?

People will still abuse drugs and die in private. Someone in a home will not walk down to the safe injection site or get their baggie tested. People will still commit crimes to feed their habits. “Safe supply” is another play on words. Less-lethal is more accurate. Poison cannot be made safe. New vile and vicious substances are arriving on our streets.

The second admission we must make is that the actions of most of these individuals are incompatible with the norms and expected behaviours of our communities. For too long the needs of these individuals have superseded the needs of the greater good. Societies function because the rule of law is respected.

We are regressing back to a Wild West mentality where anything goes, except our sheriff is nowhere to be found (maybe smoking meth behind the saloon). But in this Wild West you can’t carry weapons to defend your homestead or person, while photos on local Facebook groups show homeless addicts with axes, knives, steel pipes and machetes parading around town.

I had a talk with my parents yesterday. They are afraid to go out into the community. This is madness, considering that our taxes are paying for the maintenance of addiction and the spiralling chaos in our streets. They worked hard all their lives and deserve better.

Would any respectable parent raise their child by allowing them to consume whatever they want and act in any manner they pleased without consequence? Would we treat alcoholism with more alcohol while turning a blind eye to drunk driving? Did we encourage smokers to maintain their habits? Did we allow smoking on airplanes and buses? Did we project victimhood at the expense of personal responsibility?

Stigma has held a purpose since ancient times. But here come the ivory tower academics and woke activists thinking they know better. They don’t. If Interior Health thinks they have clever ideas that haven’t already failed in other jurisdictions, they’re extremely naïve.

Here is the pragmatic solution that no one wants to say out loud:

• The enforcement of laws with consequence for all offences must be reestablished immediately. Arresting individuals must be used as a point of entry for involuntary treatment for drug addiction and/or mental illness. Those who can’t or won’t attend treatment must serve full and appropriate prison time for the crimes they commit.
• Individuals on the street with drug addiction issues and/or mental health issues must attend involuntary treatment in dedicated facilities. There can be no choice in the matter. If you are living on the street and addicted to drugs, you are not capable of making informed decisions, and like an Alzheimer’s patient, you will be confined for your own good and for the safety of the community at large. We would not stand by and let people self harm by cutting themselves repeatedly. We wouldn’t allow EMTs rush over time and time again to stop them from bleeding out. We would confine them for treatment.
• Individuals setting up encampments must remain on designated land with 24/7 security and basic facilities. Individuals attempting to camp outside of these designated areas will be considered in violation of the law, and will be subject to the first two bullet points.
• All shelters and housing must be at city limits or in areas where residential neighbourhoods exist. Service providers funded by the public must show meaningful results or lose funding.

Homelessness is not a crime. Stealing, drug possession and use, assaults, menacing, carrying knives, guns, threatening behaviour, illegal camping, fires, leaving fentanyl in a playground, shooting and trespass are. These behaviours are not compatible with society as we know it. Let’s get them the help they need, right now, and give them a chance to integrate back in. If they can’t or won’t, it’s not our job to tolerate or pay for this madness any longer. Billions of dollars wasted, and for what?

The future of our communities depends on the choice between order and chaos. Between personal responsibility and anything goes. Between common sense and woke ideology. Unfortunately, all we have are spongey elected officials too scared to say out loud what we all know.

P. CURTIS