IMPORTANT WORK AHEAD FOR NEW SOCIAL COMMITTEE

What should Abbotsford be doing for its homeless? Are some of the
city's bridge houses, which are supposed to be helping drug addicts
kick their habit, instead being left to deteriorate into crack houses?

These are tough issues that have come out in the open recently, and
soon the city should have some answers, or at least options. City
Hall's new Social Sustainability Advisory Committee will be looking into them.

It has long been a tired cliche in politics, that when a problem
arises, the answer is to "strike a committee." But it can often be
the best way to get effective administration done. True, some
committees operate on a superficial level, accomplishing little more
than the pursuit of grant money, and doing nothing to gain
credibility with the public or decision makers.

However, because of the makeup of this group, we are optimistic that
the Social Sustainability Advisory Committee will emerge as a body
that offers effective solutions to the city's "people" problems.

The News has recently learned that some of the city's bridge houses
are overcrowded with people sleeping in hallways, offer no services
to aid addicts in their recovery, and even allow residents to do
drugs on the premises. Operators are taking welfare funding, but not
providing any support services. The News learned this from people who
have been in and out of the city's bridge houses.

These same sources who spoke out are also the kinds of people who the
committee will be seeking out to help in their work - people who have
been on the front lines - along with representatives of council and
community groups.

The group will be steered by the city's full-time social planner, who
has been on the job for almost a year. The fact that the mayor plans
to be one of council's representatives shows that how seriously city
hall is taking these issues.

Their task is formidable. The first job, an "A-one priority" is the
bridge houses, and it is the perfect place to start.

The same facilities that should be helping drug addicts, and
therefore reducing homelessness and crime in the city, are in fact
exacerbating the problem by bringing more addicts from other cities,
and not treating them.