Some excellent letters recently concerning the street people in Vernon. However, I sense a campaign by some to sway public sympathy towards these people.
Apparently they don’t bother some businesses and so are not a problem. So the city forms yet another committee. No solutions, no portable toilets, no concrete suggestions or action. I got the sense that the concerns voiced by Dean’s Tailor and the others were swept aside. Well Councillors take a few home to your house and the overflow can camp in your garden. Stop blaming other levels of government. Stop being afraid of being ‘politically correct.’
Not all the street people have mental health problems. Unless perhaps brought on by their lifestyles. We are told they are really very nice folk caught up in a situation through no fault of their own, well then, I have suggestion for them. Stop littering and making a filthy mess everywhere you go. Stop stealing carts and trolleys etc. from businesses and causing an increase in the price of goods. Stop dropping drug paraphernalia all over our parks and public places. Stop defecating and urinating in public places and on businesses. Stop hanging around intimidating other citizens, panhandling, bothering those trying to go about their business. Do have the occasional bath and clean up.
These people have made and are making their choices. The taxpayers should not be on the hook because of their poor choices. Choose your path but do not expect me to pay for you. No one attended school or work day in nor day out on my behalf, paid for my car or my mortgage or did without so I would be able to have a decent life when I was older. I’d hazard a guess that a small percentage had mental health issues which landed them on the street, others may some have health issues because of these choices, a very very small percentage are on the street through no fault of their own. How about the ones who leave home because their parents expect them to be responsible citizens, attend school, no drugs, get a job? Nicer to couch surf and do what they want and let others pay for them.
Put my taxes towards citizens who need special medications for their illnesses or special equipment or home-care. Lobby for higher minimum wages for the working poor. Put money into more Habitat homes and help those who are willing to help themselves. Cease being enablers for that is what you are doing. I am fed up with the demands being made upon my very limited income.
P. Sault
Coldstream