Regarding the Homeless in Vancouver, BC
Homelessness is a major problem in Vancouver, especially in Downtown Vancouver. They’re everywhere. Most of them are harmless and mentally disabled, but it is simply an unpleasant site. Call me prejudiced and snobby if you like, but Vancouver is supposed to be a nice clean city, and the mere sight of irresponsible, erratic, job-less, and homeless people piss me off and I don’t feel that they belong there. I feel that the value of our city is reduced significantly because of these folks. This is quite a major issue in Vancouver, BC, and it needs to be stopped or reduced somehow. Here are my angry radical thoughts on it.
The Short Term Solution : Evict them
This probably won’t slide too well with the overly sympathetic citizens nor with the two-faced government officials who do not have the luxury of being brazenly honest with their opinions, but I am in full support of evicting the homeless out of the city. Wind them up, put them all in a bus, and take them somewhere else. Make a camp for them somewhere. Feed them, house them, and make them do some labour perhaps. Some may tell me this is a horrendous idea that is against human rights, but I feel that human rights should be earned, not granted (especially in a country like Canada where it is so easy to get a simple job and start your life).
The Long Term Solution : Make it VERY difficult for homeless people to survive in Vancouver.
Many homeless people answer that they simply choose this lifestyle because they refuse to be part of the system where they work for money and spend it back into the consumer pool. OK, but why do they expect the public to give them change, and operate safe-houses and operate soup kitchens for them? If you don’t want to work for your own living you should just starve to death. The tax dollars should be spent on those who deserve it. Take away all permanent support for homeless people such as sheltors or food banks. Temporary support for those who became unfortunate can be given by the government in form of child support, unemployment insurance, etc. Beef up the government services more, but always limit it to a certain time period. Limit subsidized housing to a maximum term.
Educate the general public to NOT give change to homeless people - it only feeds their addiction. They get food from other sources. Most of their change goes towards drugs or cigarettes. If you want your change ending up in the hands of cheap drug dealers who feed off the addiction of the homeless, toss them change. I NEVER do.
Have the police patrol the streets to remove anybody sleeping on the streets. It’s a public place, and a bum sleeping on the streets is an eyesore that I do not deserve to be exposed to as a taxpayer. Remove them. Kick them out. Never let them fall asleep anywhere visible. Make it hell for them.
They will either leave the city, or go get a job just to avoid the hassle.
Also, educate people. Let the younger generation be aware of the homeless situation. Let them know it would suck to be homeless in Vancouver because there are unsympathetic hard-asses like me.
Some of you may be gasping at the lack of empathy from me. But I’ve seen countries that have it much worse. Even those who work hard cannot get a job because of the economic situation. But in Vancouver, there are so many odd jobs you can take on. We’ve always been short of labourers which is why we’ve been importing immigrants the whole time (I’m one of them). If you’re homeless in Vancouver, it’s your problem. There is so much social support even for the disabled and mentally ill. There is almost no excuse for 99% of cases.
Jeff, your opinion is understandable and you hit the nail on the head when you say that the homeless don’t want to try because there is enough that they won’t starve to death.
We live in the greatest country in the world! Canada! It is very hard to starve to death in Canada so that puts my mind at ease.
See, you are looking for a solution to this problem that is exactly the way a homeless person thinks. Just do it the easy way and not try to figure out this problem with more ingenuity.
So, you have the same mentality. Don’t gasp at my lack of empathy.
The problem with homeless people is their will. And if you know how to change the will of the people then I”m sure you can lead this country into as a more positive world influence. Agree?
Jeff, you are tired of seeing homeless people so you want change, that is good. You might be the leader that these homeless have been waiting for! You are at least willing to do something about it!
Rise up Jeff and go lead these homeless to the promise land! You can do it!
Yeah, any solution must always include the long term effects of it, and that involves cutting the problem from the root.
The police force looks to reduce speeding and drinking and driving - NOT collect more money through more tickets and charges!
Homelessness is a degrading factor for this city…
one thing that amazed me when I was in Las Vegas was that they had barely no homeless people (they had a bunch of illegal Mexicans handing out hooker fliers though). I wonder how they did it…
I tried to post a response to your thoughts with respect to this subject but believe it may have been too long. I have taken the liberty of posting it on a blog on yahoo, as well as sending it to you by email.
http://ca.360.yahoo.com/disabledcanadian
I do not think we have anything further.
Immigrants are a major problem in Vancouver, especially in Downtown Vancouver. They’re everywhere. Most of them are harmless and mentally disabled, but it is simply an unpleasant site. Call me prejudiced and snobby if you like, but Vancouver is supposed to be a nice clean city, and the mere sight of irresponsible, erratic immigrant people piss me off and I don’t feel that they belong there. I feel that the value of our city is reduced significantly because of these folks. This is quite a major issue in Vancouver, BC, and it needs to be stopped or reduced somehow. Here are my angry radical thoughts on it.
Changes the whole thought process when you just change a couple of words. Prejudice takes on many forms.
I agree with the notion that homeless people are unpleasant, but I’ve seen more white homeless people more than anything else.
Immigrants are the ones who come here to live a better life and take advantage of the better environment. Of course I’ve seen asian/mexicans but there are more white homeless people. I see them all the time as I walk around downtown. And also note that a lot of the Hastings people may look foreign but if you look closer, they just look really fuckin messy and darker-skinned but they are white.
It’s the stereotype of the lazy, spoiled white-trash of this country.
Most homeless people are MENTALLY ILL. They are not capable of doing ‘labour;’ they are not lazy - the CAN’T work for a living. And, yes, there are starving people in Canada - I’ve met them on the streets of Vancouver. You are an asshole.
you suck dink man u suck dink u should go fuck urself only if i could kill you….your a fucken bitch man dont even care about homeless…suck a fat dink
Ya ya ya keep on bitching you low-life degenerate with no ambition or vision in life.
BTW I’m not fat, and I hate fat people too.
ok i dont see how people can go and just like hate against people for almost no reason! like yah theres alot of homeless people in Vancouver and whatnot but like not all of them chose to be homeless some of those people cannot work..because they are disabled, ill, and elderly………. I dont really like seeing them all when im in Vancouver but like still i dont go on sites and put them down and all. but i donno thats just me! you have your right to your opinions so im not gonna say anything rude to you..
Jeff, I think you are bang on.
I drive through the DTES every morning on my way to work.. which I work hard 50 hours a week, and EARN my wage so that I can AFFORD to live in vancouver.
The truth is vancity is an expensive city to live in. The price of real-estate is bound to go up, making it less affordable for the lazy , less hard working people of our city.
My thought are : Hire RoboCop… well thats not going to happen.
another thought would be to shoot them with tranquilizer guns, ship em off to a barren island in the NW terretories.. survival of the fittest.
Jeff, you are a bold man, we need more people like you. The APC is a joke, and I would encourgage police to keep beating these idiots.
As for David Cunningham… or David Cuntingham..
This guy is such an idiot. Why doesnt he just realize that he’ll have to suck it up, put down his crack pipe and start working more than 2 days a week, at a real job… not making hemp necklaces for his hippie friends.
APC is a bunch of lazy crackheads.. why dont they just realize that there is such thing as an increase in property value.. the olympics are comming, vancouver is a desirable place to live… this will drive the price of housing up… if you cant afford to live there, then move.
Idiots.
They make me sick… their probably all bitter that they aren’t going to be able to sit around in their free housing and smoke dope all day..
idiots.
Jeff I appreciate your website… i think its great that we can table our opinions here.
“they shoudl move” is exacxtly my thought.
So many of these weed-smoking hippies do nothing all day, just assume that a certain degree of lifestyle should be guaranteed while others achieve it through hard work.
I work.. I don’t know how many hours I work a week, but I work a lot, all the time. I work the day meeting clients and doing stuff, I work the evening developing code and websitse etc. I deserve the lifestyle. Cunningham does not.
As for the assholes who vandalized a government office yesterday - if I was an emplyee who happened to be there I would have smoked those assholes with a fire extinguisher. Resorting to vandalism is a typical childish behaviour found in these wanna-be rebels.
I come from Korea, and I’ve seen violent protests against the government. My mother lived through one of the most violent oppressions in Korea which killed so many protestors. They tried to bring true democracy to the country, true open press etc. and that’s the kind of stuff you demonstrate against. The APC? They protest to protect the unwilling degenerates. What a joke. They should try living in a real tough country and they’ll appreciate that there are more than enough $8/hr jobs where kids can get started out of.
That is exactly it, they need to start somewhere. Stop being lazy. Stop using “addiction” as an excuse. I do understand there are alot of mentally ill people downthere, but the majority of them are lazy and use “addiction” as an excuse. Its brutal and makes me sick.
I’d love to live down there, the DTES has some of the oldest buildings in vancouver, and some of the best views! … but the fact is I do not want to live down there because of the community of lazy drug addicts who are living down there who are ruining everyones lasting impression of vancouver.
Jeff, this is obviously a very important issue to you- I just wonder if you have done any research into it?
Is there anything that would change the way that you view ”the homeless” (keeping in mind that this is a broad sweeping term)
Not much research - just experience from different parts of the world. I grew up in Korea - now that’s a tough place to live, especially in the stock market/currency crash of 1997. That’s a world where being homeless is sort of acceptable, as people really relaly had no choice despite how much hard work they put in - there were simply not enough resources.
Here? Give me a break, if anybody does not have enough survival skills to make it here, they probably should just perish away. Survival of the fittest. Of course there’s the small portion that have mental problems or health issues, but there are programs to assist even for those situations - if you seek the solution, find the right offices and look for help.
Nonetheless. It’s ridiculous to say that to protect the small portion of people who are “legitimately” homeless (the word legitimately in quotation marks because I don’t believe in such thing - regardless of environment/situation, if the end result means you’re homeless and unable to support yourself than you really have no hope) the government and the rest of the population should put their resources in, sacrifice equity growth to provide those degenerates with shelter and food.
I guess this will require sacrifice from the small portion of those who really had no choice, but that’s reality - nobody can save the whole world, nothing’s fair. I was born with certain advantages as well as disadvantages - I don’t expect the world to make it fair for me.
Basic rights, human rights is only a man-made concept that the lower-class attempts to self-impose and is merely another struggle. I honestly don’t believe that every human being has the right to be fed and housed. I only believe everybody should have an opportunity.
I strive to give myself and others opportunity, rathern than just handing them a certain lifestyle that they do not deserve.
I took the boot out of home when I was 18, barely out of highschool. I had a few hundred bucks, which covered my first month’s rent and the U-Haul Van. I was smart enough to challenge myself to a nice job that paid me $15+ an hour, which later became over $17/hr. A year later I quit, started my own busienss, and half a year later I moved downtown to a high-rise building. I’ve crawled up myself - which make my opinions more valid than ever. If I were some rich kid from a rich family who went to university on my parents’ money and got a degree, I’d have some sympathy.
But no, I was left with the same choice most homeless people were given at one point, and I chose another path. If anybody gets to condemn them, it’s me.
It sounds like you have had a tough past Jeff. It must be frusterating to see people take from you to live when they could be making it for themselves.
I do think you may have too much faith in the systems available for the “legitimately” poor. My father has a degree in astrophysics and certification for teaching high school in NZ. But due to circumstances when we moved to Canada we ended up trying to get on our feet for almost 10 years!
I am now making good money as a professional, but I’ve been on the other side of the poverty line and I would never assume that it is simply a matter of choice and will, when you’re down and out.
You anger is justified, but I don’t think your approach is constructive. Homelessness is ugly, but it’s real and it involves real people. Vancouver is “supposed” to be a clean city, but it isn’t, there are obviously deficiencies with the current system. Those deficiencies are caused by the over-simplified solutions such as “just get rid of them” because not enough time and money goes into understanding the problem. You blame the homeless for being lazy when you are the one who wants the world’s simplest solution to the world’s most complicated problem.
I’m afraid social economic development has come a long way since the invention of labour camps. But if you like, we can put yellow stars on the homeless and rename coquitlam as New Auschwitz.
The idea that homeless people don’t work to survive is based on the myth that social services actually provides enough for disabled people to live on. It does not. $950 a month is not enough to cover rent and food. Disabled people have to do lots of things to survive everyday, such as travelling to food banks and dealing with transportation issues, and shopping in several different stores to get cheaper groceries rather than buying in one place. It does take up time when a person does not have a car or enough to buy food for the family in regular ways. The other myth Jeff seems to be deluded by is the myth that people on disability don’t work in regular employment. Many disabled people work in paid employment but need a subsidy in the form of disability allowance to survive. Jeff seems to believe a strong believer in “Arbeit macht frei” - a concept espoused by the Nazis.
Well said, Jeff. I’m just sick and tired of hearing all these bleeding heart losers say junkies need “compassion.” Compassion is nothing more than a bullshit sounding word. The safe injecting site is going F***ing nowhere because the nimrods who run the place aren’t discouraging junkies to give up taking drugs. They should shipped off somwhere far from Vancouver, probably in the interior or something. If I were judge, I’d outlaw panhandling and put these classless drug dealers in their place.
I was at Tim Hortons late last night to grab a quick bite. This homeless fucking junky whore comes up to me, already holding leftover food in her hand, asking me if she can have my soup. I told her, “I’m not done my food, go away.”
If she at least just waited til I was done I wouldn’t have said anything, but how dare she even talk to me during my meal??? She interrupted me again saying “Is there anything I can do for the soup?” And i just lost it - there isn’t a single thing in this world that she can do for me to make me happy. I told her “No, FUCK OFF.”
Just to make a statement, when I finished my meal, I dumped the soup container upside down in the garbage.
Firstly, i’d like to say I used your email, jeff, for that stupid email - required thingie. I just don’t trust you.
(It was either use yours or make one up :))
Anyways… the homeless are a problem in not only Vancouver but many other cities as well. What has to happen is that the government should make a fake town and give simple directions to get there. They should say “this is all free” and stuff like that so the homeless will swarm there. Once a ton of em are in the “town” the govt should either, 1: blow it all up 2: send em to the moon 3: send em to ghost towns or low populated towns 4: teach em how to work 5: rehabilitate them so they won’t do drugs, gambling, and the things that generally would get people in the streets.
I like option # 2 best though cuz they could be dressed as ALIENS! And it would be pretty funny yet mean.
And to you critics out there: I don’t care what you say cuz this was written just for fun.
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Sounds intersting.. Are you keeping up with my specific province A JOKE! ) What is a Mummy’s favorite kind of music? RAGtime music! or wRAP!!!