The Victoria- and Canada-wide problem of street people sleeping in our parks and on the pavements will not go away with the government tinkering around the edges. Buying motels and offering “wrap around services” will not help those with much greater needs.The first group are the mentally ill and they should not be on the street at all. The movement by the government in the 1980s to empty out the psychiatric hospitals and put the inhabitants into the communities was not a well-thought action.
These services never happened except in a small and mostly ineffectual way. The ones that were offered often were staffed by people not trained in dealing with psychiatric illness and medications needed for the inhabitants; and consequently a person in distress would not get the attention needed to avoid a worse scenario.I feel that the government probably saw their action as a win-win situation; saving money, and maybe balancing a budget, always an important aspect for a government.
Many of the institutions had occupational therapy, outings, dances and other activities to help people remain on a level of functioning that is currently not seen today and how can it be when people are left to their own devices with little comprehension of where they fit into society? What we are doing now is cruel and only feeding the coffers of drug dealers who are making money off the backs people who are suffering unbearable lives with the government “assisting” with the mistaken belief that they are helping. The government aid is unsustainable and delusional. This is not cost effective when all the agencies involved, i.e the police , ER departments, et al.
Pick up your junkie no gooder kids Canada
Why has that blindingly obvious fact taken so long to be addressed?
The government has known this since Riverview closed down yet prioritized a museum ahead of people.
And that can all be sorted out while they are in jail.
As a taxpayer this has got to stop. Enough money has been thrown at people who don't want to help themselves.
jpt16 The politicians need to get back to taking care of the people PERIOD. They need to build FIVE of 'The Summit' buildings but for mental health & addictions in BC.
April 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Thanks Trudeau Sr. you seriously f***ed society over by allowing mentally ill the right to refuse treatment if they didn’t want it. That’s why all institutions were closed & nothing effective has been allowed since.
YES they need to be put all together and given help to try to stop the violence and stealing that is going on .Some of them are responsible.
tkt4022 $126,000,000.00 +++tax dollars worth of Burnside Gorge area motels could have been better spent!
VoteYYJWilliams Old style psychiatric institutions may be undesirable yet small group homes with mental health professionals and rehab facilities would be useful. Now the mentally ill are on their own and easy victims of drug addiction not to mention a potential hazard to others.
What data is this one-third, one-third, one-third based on? Making stuff up like this, particularly about the second two groups, does not add value.
Somehow closing all the mental institutions is considered compassionate.