It's livable for the exact reasons why the homeless come here. You don't die on the street in the winter due to the cold.
The worst of the drug addicts are confined to a 4x3 block area, and while property crime rates are very high, violent crime isn't. I've walked through the worst area at night alone several times and was totally fine. You can even have halfway decent conversations with a few of the guys down there. Some have serious issues, and others are messed up out of their minds, so you just keep your distance.
It's not like they have guns and will shoot you dead for $5 or anything.
I think its because the winter is less harsh there. Also are they going to convert that athletes village into some sort of affordable housing complex?
That would seem to be an easy solution
After the 2010 Winter Games, the buildings will become permanent residential housing, with a focus on housing for families. It will be a mixed-use community and will contribute about 1,100 residential units (250 of which will become affordable housing, and another 100 units will become modest market housing).
Does the site provide the needles?
Because if not, that system is flawed
I'm not sure I see the big deal w/ the injection sites- they're not providing the drugs...
These people have the drugs- it's just deciding to use a clean needle or a used needle...that's not really "enabling" an addiction- they're addicted and have their drugs already- they're getting high regardless...
Unless I'm mistaken about the injection sites and they are offering a means to the substances...
Does the site provide the needles?
Because if not, that system is flawed
They don't give out drugs there, but they do provide clean needles and a clean place to do it with nurses who are there to provide information for how to get clean.
We actually had a case where some residents filled their bathtub with coal and cooked chicken in it.....
... I recognize that no one chooses to be on the street. ...
Wasn't there some sort of tent city in vancouver
So they found their way back home after the Olympics?
This is what you get for not exactly legalizing drugs, but taking a drug friendly approach and providing places where they can shoot up and providing clean needles.
Enabling is never the answer. They should have invested in rehab centers instead. I'm an advocate of legalizing Mary Jane and other non-addicting drugs, but H, Special K, crack...C'mon son...
http://vancouver.ca/olympicvillage/about.htm
So, about 22% social housing. The original projection was 33-40% social housing, but they caved slightly to developer demands. Still, it's a step in the right direction.
Winter usually is a great way to reduce their population so any that are left when it warms up are usually the tougher of the bunch and eventually they will breed into some sort of super homeless that will be able to zap your change directly from your pockets to their cups.
I suggest you do what they did in South Park and send them to California.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMsr0cLnQPI
I'm not sure what they did in Vancouver, but here in Victoria the homeless got moved out of downtown during the games, and they beef up contributions to soup kitchen to keep them off the street.
IMHO, homeless in the west coast is a national problem because it is known that Ontario use to give homeless people a one way bus ticket to go home (any where in Canada) and 3 months of welfare. Hence the homeless people took the opportunity to move to Vancouver/Victoria because of the mild climate. I strongly believe that we can lower the number of people on the street if we increase the capability/funding of treatment hospitals like Riverview, instead of pushing group home housing as the only choice in the last 20 years. Some homeless people requires institutionalize support because they don't function well in a group home or want to live in a group home/low income housing.
They ran em all out I have a video on it. Terrible.
Holy fuck, they pay to staff nurses on the taxpayer dime for these sacks of shit too? wow. Thats some coin
Safe injection site?
WTF? Is that how they are seriously spending your tax money? wow.
Needles are a lot cheaper than dealing with blood borne illnesses, in the same way that condoms are cheaper than orphanages. "Harm reduction".
The nurses can either work there, or at a hospital to deal with them further down the line.
And not all of them are "sacks of shit" btw. A lot of them have severe mental illnesses and don't know how to function on their own. This makes the issue one of healthcare (nurses and hospitals) and not one of crime (police and jails).