[Rich Sandor]

Originally Posted by 89blkcivic

Throwing money at education doesn't solve anything, either.

I disagree. There are many programs for children that can be beneficial for them and society in the long run. Many of these programs help children who don't have a family that provides them with adequate parenting. These are programs with on-on-one counselling for kids who are on the verge of falling over to the wrong side of the tracks.

Money needs to go towards educating young parents on how to raise their children properly. Why should the education system have to try and fix society's problems? Everything boils down to lousy parenting skills. How many children can read by the age of three? What ever happened to that? Kids come to school not knowing how to spell their own names or tie their own fucking shoes.

This I agree on, however I do not agree that you can force someone to be a better parent. If a child is unlucky enough to be born to a bad parent, it's only hope for survival is to have people in the school system who can be surrogate parents and provide some of the life skills that are non-existant at home. Again, I agree that this is the parents' job to do, however if SOMEONE doesn't help the child, they will wind up on the streets. It's better to spend the money on them earlier rather than later.

Your perception of DTES is skewed. The crackheads and junkies are what you see on the outside. There's more. Finding a solution is not easy. Like others have mentioned, the truly homeless and disadvantaged are lost behind all the fucking junkies and people who have, by choice, as you put it, ruined their lives.

I grew up downtown. My perception is not skewed, it is first hand. People live there because it is a trap that sucks you in and you can't get out. Whether you are an addict or clean but disabled and poor, you can 'survive' in the DTES because all the resources are close by to just barely keep you alive, whereas doing so anywhere else in Vancouver would be inconvenient. Birds of a feather flock together, so the community keeps growing as it supports itself in it's state of perpetual poverty. People from the DTES rant and rave that it's a family and a community, but the same thing that keeps them together keeps them down. Throwing funding at this community does not help because it does not help them get OUT of the community. They need to get the fuck out of there and start fresh AWAY from the poverty with a community that does not approve of panhandling and sleeping on the sidewalk. They need mental institutions for people who are mentally ill, and they need affordable housing AWAY from the poverty of the DTES, where people can hold their head high and start to regain some self respect.

I also think it is absolutely ludicrous to build 'affordable housing' in the most expensive real estate in vancouver.