How to Not Make Political Mistakes

Question: Why would you link to the National Post right-wing neocon publication?! They are the most biased "newspaper" in Canada. And no one should care, never mind re-post, their propaganda.

That's true, but these issues have come up from a few publications and this article along with the comments seemed to give the best description of the potential problems Gregor is going to face.

I was under the impression that the bulk of the homeless solution would have to be implemented by the provincial/federal gov't.. It seems like a mayor should be more someone who is a capable administrator rather than a visionary.

We'll see, I hope he has some tricks up his sleeve that work!

Homelessness will be incredibly tough to end.
San Francisco hasn't done it. New York hasn't done it.

Did Gregor mean to end homelessness completely? or partially?

Once we finish putting all the current homeless people in beds and rooms. What's going to keep them from going back out to the streets?

More homeless people will come from Kelowna or Montreal or Newfoundland.

A more solvable issue will be tackling mental health issues in Vancouver' Downtown Eastside. Hopefully new councilor Dr. Kerry Jang a UBC professor of Psychiatry and advocate for mental health issues will put Gregor on the right path, including addressing community living, support services and Riverview Hospital.

Closing down Riverview in the early 90's put a lot of people on Vancouver streets who couldn't look after themselves, because support services weren't in place.

As you point out, anyone with any sense of the city's history knows that homelessness, poverty, vagrancy, mental illness, drug addiction, and associated criminality have been mainstays here for about a century. This place was always 'the end of the line' and for many it still is. The cocaine is more recent, but all the other evils have been well represented for about 80 years. Robertson's pledge is basically meaningless, but then so is much of what comes out of civic government as jurisdictional limits will always hamstring their attempts. We need full blown, federal/provincial/municipal integration of approaches, but that is of course impossible in a country like Canada which constitutionally is essentially unable to make those accomodations.

I hope homelessness ends, even a little bit.

From working 'in the system' now, it seems in Vancouver people tend to go for a handout first, rather than trying to help themselves, work and push hard to make their own situation better. There seems to be no self respect, pride, work ethic at times. People also tend to give up extremely easy instead of having patience and taking the steps needed to make things better in their lives. There seems to be a lot of keeping up with the Jones' type of thing. They see what someone else has and think they should have that instantly as well. If he can have that, why can't I type of thing. Without taking into consideration the person might have had to work for whatever a long time to achieve what they have.
I could go on.

I love my job, helping others, but there are frustrating times when people demand a handout from you. This is taking in consideration mental health issues, drug addiction, etc.
Believe me. I've been there myself. I've been homeless. I know what its like to starve and for a very long time. I know what its like to go to work for two weeks (after luckily getting the chance at a decent job) and not have anything to eat at home, to put together work appropriate clothes out of nothing.
But I knew things would get better, if I kept strong, kept on the right path my future would look brighter. And it does.

What I do know is when I was in a bad situation, I was extremely appreciative of the smallest things. I never demanded or questioned what I received. I made do with what I had.

I wish homeless people all the luck in the world, and I don't have all the answers. I just wanted to say my piece. I hope I don't get flamed now for not being all one side or another.

Thank you

I agree that by making such blanket statements Gregor is setting himself up for failure.

As mentioned in another comment, homelessness is an issue that needs to be addressed with coordination from Federal, Provincial, and Municipal bodies (not to mention the role of non-profits, advocates and public attitudes/stigma). I think that Gregor's statements echo a real misconception about homelessness, namely that it is homogeneous. With ideas from excellent programs such as Toronto's Streets to Homes, Gregor may be able to get a large portion of those who are chronically homeless off the streets. For other segments of the homeless population, he will need to look at different indicators, such as structural elements of welfare and other social assistance programs that are unable to keep up with the cost of living.

Sensationalist statements such as the one Gregor made make me trust politicians less, not more.