this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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B.c is the weirdest place I've been to. It's like walking through a wealthy city, and seeing wealthy people in nice clothes just stepping over homeless, maybe toss em a coin and pat themselves on the back, and acting like it's just normal life. It's obscene. It felt to me like being in a place with deep social issues, but it doesn't actually want to fix the issues, just pretty them up and act like it's not a problem
They closed down the mental hospital which put a lot of people on the street who shouldn't be on the street and left no place for new people in need.
Then we have other cities and provinces giving homeless people one way bus tickets to here to get rid of their own problem.
(Edit And then it's the best climate in Canada if you are going to be homeless so they make their own way here often enough as well. )
Among a lot of things that can be done, we really need them to reopen the mental hospital. A lot of those people just won't get the support they need via other services.
The existence of a bad thing doesn't make this any less a good thing.
Try growing up super poor there. I've been homeless there, there's loads of great people who just want to help you clean up your life and get off the street...annnnd there's people who see you and throw a few pennies at you and consider it their charitable contribution to society for the year, all while pinching their nose and stepping practically in the street to stay as far away from you while feeling good about themselves.
The wealthy people in b.c were what really disgusted me. The way they went about their wealthy lives, eating in super expensive restaurants while there's hungry homeless just outside that they ignore. Kinda reminded me of India.
I went to Victoria and I was dismayed at the homeless/addiction issue, and was shocked at how nobody in the fancy restaurants seem to give a shit
Literally just like any other affluent city of similar size in NA right now lol
One thing to note is Alberta would give their homeleas a one-way bus ticket to Vancouver (claiming that the weather is safer for the unhoused, which it is) so we get extra people without shelter, on top of not having a cohesive plan
In Ontario we just ignore the homeless people and then pat ourselves on the back anyway.
I took a trip to Niagara falls this year, hadn't been there since before the pandemic. It's like a homeless carnival over there now, they're on every corner.
Where are you from? This has been the way of it in major cities in Canada or the US for decades.
At some point, people get tired of watching the sandwich you bought for that "hungry person" get tossed in the garbage or the dude who "just needs bus fare home to his family" hitting you up months later with the same spiel
I agree, I mean I think you can provide infinite money to homeless shelters and services, but I'm most concerned with the mentally ill homeless who refuse help, and just make life uncomfortable for anyone else in the city. There are known homeless guys in my city who are known for harassing and threatening people, but no matter what they do, they get infinite sympathy and no forced intervention.
I'm all for helping those who are in need, all in. But you're never going to fix the homeless issue, unless you accept that some will need to be forcibly removed from their street life, because they don't want help.
People in places like b.c want to appear tolerant so they give the violent ones all the slack in the world and act like they don't exist