Canadian politics thread

[supafamous]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

What do you all think of Ken Sims' new strategy? Refusing to approve any supported housing in YVR because he thinks other municipalities should carry some (presumably Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, etc.) instead of being concentrated in Vancouver. I guess the answer depends on where you live ...

In a sense, I see where he is coming from.



https://vancouver.citynews.ca/video/...-housing-plan/

I don't know what's a good solution but I've learned in the last few years that if Ken Sim is behind it then it's probably a bad idea that's half baked and is bad for everyone involved except him.

[Harvey Specter]

I think the long game for Sim is to push social housing out of the core and gentrify the entire East Hastings area, all the way down to the new hospital and viaduct, which will eventually be removed. His pal Chip and other developers are waiting in the wings for a chance to buy up prime real estate at below market prices.

[whitev70r]

So philosophically, set aside who Sim is 'in bed with', which is the better approach?

1. Concentrate the poverty into the DTES area? This is what we have now, whether it was a strategy or not. Most people would think it's NOT working.

2. Spread the poverty around and try to integrate into other neighbourhoods. Yes, NIMBY, drugs, crime, addiction, etc. And it would also involve trying to revitalize DTES (what folks call gentrification, pushing the poor out, putting trendy lofts and condos, businesses, etc.)

Or, is there another strategy? Maybe #2 along with other strategies like Basic Income, rehab, and incarceration of really dangerous individuals? I don't know, it is so complex.

[westopher]

All the governments need to work together to deal with the homelessness crisis because they let it get so far gone and everyone just played hot potato with it. This was 30 years in the making it's going to take 100 to get out of it.
They need to start with habitable places for people to sleep and enough availability for rehab programs that people don't need to wait months for the opportunity to get clean.
Definitely as much as people don't want to hear it or deal with it, these all need to be spread way out throughout every neighbourhood and city to break up the community that enables these behaviours by being the only place that will accept these individuals.
Definitely don't need incarceration for drug only offences but need way more of it for violent individuals. Theres no reason at all someone who's got 50 assault charges to be back on the street days after their latest one. That's fucking absurd and it's the norm.

[GLOW]

repeat criminal offenders aside, i think when looking at housing, housing with supports i think is key.

shutting down the hospital at riverview was a huge mistake, we are seeing a lot of the results, where'd all those people go?

also the pandemic exasperated the need as it was evident how the dtes exploded and can see how it spilled over to adjacent areas.

stated many times it's a very complex issue and no magic bullet, but just building housing or stuffing folks in housing when they need more isn't going to solve the issue

[Hondaracer]

Think Sim really just realized his clean and sweep program wasn’t working and ran out of ideas.

In general I do think other cities should bare more of the burden of the issues, it’s really just Whaley and the DTES where the “support” services are based and typically if you’re homeless and have mental health issues or addiction you’ll end up in one or the other.

On the surface I agree with the idea, however I can’t help but think all this means is basically, get ready for more homeless people in YOUR neighborhood.

I watched a documentary on the skid row in LA and it’s pretty much been the same area/same conditions for the last 100 years because when most major cities cut highways through their skid row to disperse the residents, LA took the Vancouver approach and figured it would be better to contain the problem to one area. Even there however it’s becoming gentrified and everything that brings.

If you’re not gonna re-open a river view type place, I think we’re pretty much fucked because no one is going to take the initiative. This really falls on the provincial govt. now to do something because Eby’s plan to tackle it through decrim etc. was a massive failure and it seems like after that they just walked away from it completely.

[68style]

I don't know what the answer can be tho... like how do you help people that, in many instances, don't want to be helped.

I get the impression from friends in the industry of homless or at risk peoples support that the percentage of people who are vulnerable in this way who actually want to stand on their own feet and contribute to society is pretty low... they kinda just want to have a place to live and food but not really work or whatever, they've gotten just as jaded as anyone else in the service industry in Van. Who wants to work 40hrs a week and then barely afford a basement suite in Timbuktu?

All the projects I've seen for free housing like the condos on West 2nd are completely destroyed inside and out, I used to sit in my buddy's office across from one of them and we'd just watch all day as people went in and out thrashing their arms, lowering buckets from 10th story windows with drugs in them, cover windows in tinfoil, roll up on obviously stolen bikes and pull them inside whacking all the walls and doors... just total degenerates.

Is there really an answer for these types of people? How much do you keep throwing money into a fire?

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

On the surface I agree with the idea, however I can’t help but think all this means is basically, get ready for more homeless people in YOUR neighborhood.

i think we're starting to see it more and more, whether it's providing for those that need it in 'your' neighbourhood or if it's a matter of 'if you build it, they will come', i'm not sure, maybe a little of both.

[BIC_BAWS]

Originally Posted by meme405

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law...talks-10128787

Blaming the media because Metro Vancouver board's behaviour and lack of accountability are now being reported on a daily basis.

Lady needs to give her head a shake, if they did good work the region wouldn't be fucked on everything.

She can take solace in the fact that Metro Van isn't the only government entity that fucks up every project it touches, but to say that they are "doing good work" is an embarrassing self reflection on where we are at.

As someone new to non-profit work funded by government organizations, it is absolutely astonishing as to how there are so many similar, but different government organizations. Each of these organizations are working in their own interest to reduce their own dollars spent by partnering with other gov orgs, but all need to ensure that the project is within the scope of their individual org. ie. BC funds can't be used on a project owned by a Federal org even if the project is BC focused.

Idk wtf the difference between InvestBC and Invest Vancouver is, but I suppose it's in the name. Their objective is supposed to showcase to foreign investors why Vancouver is a great place to invest in and what they can get out of it. However, I hear that Invest Vancouver has nothing to offer - there's no UVP or clear pathways for benefits ie. immigration. OTOH, I imagine it would become a matter for a federal org as immigration is a federal thing - see the problem here?

[blkgsr]

they need to establish the infrastructure on one the of the coastal islands and send everyone there on a rehab to work program.

criminals go to jail, junkies go to the island

[Harvey Specter]

I think we need to start seriously discussing universal basic income. Many, especially younger generations, live paycheck to paycheck and they're literally one emergency away from homelessness. And it's not because of addiction or crime, but due to rising costs and stagnant wages.

Basic income could offer stability in a world where AI and inequality are leaving too many behind and I feel like it's time to address this systemic issue before it gets worst.

[Hondaracer]

I’ve said this before but I really think it will eventually happen when the general public will no longer stomach homeless people littering the streets everywhere.

You build some towers, everyone gets a unit, if you choose to live on the street, you’re going to jail.

People tear apart their SRO’s, start fires etc. you see these stories about the “poor conditions” SRo’s are in then you see people have ripped doors off the hinges, destroyed their toilets, etc. yea no shit, at some point you’ve gotta have an ounce of personal accountability.

[JDMDreams]

This is why you can't give them more shit or hand out, cuz they just destroy the place or set it on fire while they are high. We should just ship them all to a deserted island, make a reality show about it stream it on Netflix, ??? Profit, more money goes back to the government instead of being a endless sinkhole. they can re offend on their on island

[Hondaracer]

Before anything like that happens you need to build in all the supports.

Create all the addiction, mental health supports, hire enough people to facilitate this.

After all that’s in place, if you are a chronic offender and resist the help provided. Society has no place for you.

Stuff like this will likely NEVER happen though because no one will ever have the balls to enact change like this when it comes to native people. You can bash someone’s head in and claim your great uncle went to residential school and get off Scott free. It will always be viewed as some skewed racist BS to call a spade a spade here.

Drive down through the DTES on a sunny, summer day. There are very clearly people there who choose to be there.

[68style]

I think the main problem with UBI is that it makes inflation skyrocket, ironically.... you give everyone money and suddenly money isn't worth shit anymore.

It's kinda why someone like Elon Musk, who could almost at this point gift everyone in the world like $100k, even if they did something like that it would actual ruin everything price wise and people would be even worse off than before.

[JDMDreams]

We gave like all the residential school people like $200k each, and look what happened, they just blow it all on crack or alcohol, and back to living like bums and rely on welfare. Did they go to school or get a job?

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

We gave like all the residential school people like $200k each, and look what happened, they just blow it all on crack or alcohol, and back to living like bums and rely on welfare. Did they go to school or get a job?

I love your takes

[murd0c]

Originally Posted by JDMDreams

We gave like all the residential school people like $200k each, and look what happened, they just blow it all on crack or alcohol, and back to living like bums and rely on welfare. Did they go to school or get a job?

And don't forget all schooling is free for them as well...

[CivicBlues]

...and and they get to visit museums for free to see their own artifacts while we have to pay admission like chumps.

The nerve!

[Badhobz]

I should have taken the chief up on his offer last time I drove through seton portage with a rented Range Rover. I could have had my country wife and a native status card !! The perks alone would be worth the immediate divorce

[whitev70r]

I've also thought about offering homes to the homeless and the issue of the person's ability to maintain the home. Afterall, think about the responsibility to keep your house/TH/condo in relative good condition and tend to issues that arise. If there is a scale of sort where a person's capacity - mental, emotional, psychiatric, etc is able to take care of their own place, let's call that 5 out of 10. There are lots of people homeless that are on the scale of 1-4. Giving them a 'home' will end up as many described, being trashed, shit on the wall, toilets clogged, hoarding, etc.

So if we talk about 'wrap around' support, these individuals who are not capable of maintaining their own place, they have to be brought from a 1 to a 5 through self-hygiene, basic self care, care of possessions, basic finance mgmt, etc. before they can be given a home.

There are so many finer nuances of trying to offer a homeless person a home in order for that to be sustainable.

[68style]

Originally Posted by murd0c

And don't forget all schooling is free for them as well...

This is only true if they live on a reserve, which sucks monkeyballs.

[westopher]

Originally Posted by whitev70r

I've also thought about offering homes to the homeless and the issue of the person's ability to maintain the home. Afterall, think about the responsibility to keep your house/TH/condo in relative good condition and tend to issues that arise. If there is a scale of sort where a person's capacity - mental, emotional, psychiatric, etc is able to take care of their own place, let's call that 5 out of 10. There are lots of people homeless that are on the scale of 1-4. Giving them a 'home' will end up as many described, being trashed, shit on the wall, toilets clogged, hoarding, etc.

So if we talk about 'wrap around' support, these individuals who are not capable of maintaining their own place, they have to be brought from a 1 to a 5 through self-hygiene, basic self care, care of possessions, basic finance mgmt, etc. before they can be given a home.

There are so many finer nuances of trying to offer a homeless person a home in order for that to be sustainable.

There's a homeless commune around Kelowna that works like this. They basically get their own sea can and are in a community of a bunch and the requirement is to contribute like a co-op and it's spoken of so highly by its tenants. Many of them have said how the sense of purpose has helped them get clean and re enter the workforce.
A farm that I get food from (I'm their biggest buyer in terms of restaurants) employs people from the DTES and has lifted many people out of poverty and helped with their addictions and mental health issues by providing a safe and understanding workplace. It's called sole food street farms if anyone is interested, and there's an article about it recently interviewing the farm coordinator and myself about it in montecristo magazine recently.
A lot of people really just need some acceptance from society to be able to integrate back into it. Of course that doesn't work for everyone, but it's a part of the multifaceted approach that's needed.
This isn't provided by the government, it's provided as a private business, which is a good and bad thing, as obviously it should be a governmental responsibility that's being handled by private citizens better than the government does.

[Badhobz]

Speaking of homeless. What do I do here….

I know of a guy who’s homeless. He’s full time employed with us through a 3rd party (I think he makes probably 50-60k) but is recently divorced and can’t afford to pay his ex wife plus kid plus rent. He’s literally staying in the common space in our office building cuz he got evicted. I know cuz I caught him a few times staying very late for no reason. I think he’s been homeless for 2 months now.

I occasionally give the guy a couple of bucks to buy food but I don’t know how to help him out.

He smells funny too. And he’s white !!!! What the fuck… like well bred white (Not Slovenian white) … like handsome 69stylez or sex magnet westopher white or aryan nation Hondaracer white

If he was Chinese or another type of Asian I would have given him a dagger to end himself. Fucking useless prick. Actually if he was Asian, I’m sure he would have offed himself already….Shit or offed his old lady and the kid in a rampage of blood and destruction

[JDMDreams]

Isn't the child support based % on your income? So the less you make the less you pay.