NO SIMPLE SOLUTIONS TO HOMELESSNESS

To the Editor,

It was very disheartening to read Dan Ford's recent letter (Giving
homes to homeless sends the wrong message, April 24) regarding the
homelessness issue.

After working with people with addiction and mental health issues for
the past 25 years, I know that these issues are complex ones, and that
if there were simple solutions as Mr. Ford suggests, I am sure that we
would have rectified these problems by now.

Certainly it is correct that some homeless people have alcohol or drug
problems. There is also a significant percentage of homeless people
who suffer from severe and pernicious mental health disorders.

I know that at our local emergency shelter, homeless people come in
looking for shelter who have neither of the above, but who have fallen
on hard times, and lost their place to live. This sometimes includes
seniors who cannot afford to live on small pensions.

It is also true that sometimes people with alcohol or drug problems
steal or beg to obtain money. But some people with these problems have
jobs and/or families that provide them with money.

For a certain percentage of women with severe drug problems, they make
their money by providing prostitution services to a certain male
clientele in Nanaimo.

I agree that having meaningful work is important in providing a
feeling of pride of accomplishment. As for finding a job, when someone
comes through detox who has been dealing with a chronic addiction
problem for several years, it is difficult for them to find a job right away.

If they are on social assistance, their main concern, initially, will
be to find a place to live and enough to eat. The lack of safe,
affordable housing in our community is a huge problem.

Before people can work on finding jobs, or upgrading their education,
their basic needs of food and shelter must be met. They need the
opportunity to work on their addiction and related issues.

The odds for recovery maintenance would be greatly enhanced if our
clients had supportive housing, where they could have some time and
some support to start putting their lives back together again, with
one of the goals being to get a job or go back to school.

Unfortunately, there is serious lack of supportive housing in our
community for this purpose, so the vicious cycle continues.

KATHARINE GOW

Clearview Detox Centre