Homelessness

Below is Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It was my great pleasure to have them on my radio show at midnight in the early 90's.

Now, let me draw your attention to two pieces in the local press on this important issue.

Tom Sandborn, writing in yesterday's Courier rightly skewers several politicians for their playing with numbers, while accomplishing little.

The amount of pure BS that has been emitted from local gasbags on this subject is appalling, when you consider how they have refused to really tackle the issue.

In today's Sun, Dr. Kerry Jang, asks the question, "Which comes first - a new home or a cleaned up street person?"

It's a fair enough question, but he spends so much time asking it that he leaves only a few short sentences for the answer.

The answer is that neither extreme is correct.

The answer is that homeless people need homes, just as anyone does. But a home without purpose, direction, focus, love and support is not a home; it is a building.

That is why the treatment program we ran for years worked - because it was all these things and more. That is why so many government answers to these problems don't work.

The monumental premier and the city politicians believe in real estate. They don't understand that CONTENT IS CRUCIAL.

It is easy to buy or build wooden structures.

It is much more challenging and labor intensive and attention-demanding to create the structure of do's and don't and wills and won'ts that exist in a real home.

Wake me up when the politicians get it and start to invest in non-profit groups who actually know how to help homeless people find homes.

You know the more I think of it, the more I am starting to feel sorry for people like Gordon Campbell. Guys rushing around building and buying, grabbing and snaring and espousing and saying and travelling and conquering...and not a clue about what really counts and how things really work. Always on the lookout for the Easy Answer, the Ready Solution, the healine grabber.

Blah, blah, blah - zilch.

These boobs are sadder than the guy on the street.