Backpacker Motel Public Meeting A Snow Job: One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

For about 190 of the 210 people who showed up at Ron Brent Elementary School to talk about the new homeless facility on Queensway they weren’t treated to a sales job, it was snow job.

We did learn that the City Planning department had worked with BC Housing to come up with the location. So the dye was cast three years ago, you had the province buying the property with the blessing of the City Planning department.

It will be interesting to see if City Council follows its own guide lines, those being that if you buy property, and begin the process of building on it without first receiving the proper zoning, then you’re not going to receive the City’s support. Now given that it is the province of BC and the City’s very own Planning Department who did the deed, let’s see if there are two sets of rules.  

The neighbourhood residents have concerns about security, they  wanted assurances their children won’t be  molested or exposed to  the  demons these Freindship Lodge  residents are trying to  exorcise.   In an effort to allay those fears, the City Planning department  kept  advising residents to look a the "map" on the back wall which  shows there are similar facilities offering similar services in neighbourhoods all over the City.

The comparisons of this new facility by City planning staff as being similar to, for example, the Hospice House and Rainbow Park Lodge are bloody absurd.

Try to imagine Granny from Rainbow Lodge parked in front of the facility in her wheel chair doing tricks?  Or more absurd , a resident of Hospice House out among the homes looking for little kids to molest?  How about a wheelchair bound resident of a facility heading out at night to mug someone?   

The only thing in common between the facilities  marked on the map and the "proposed" Friendship Lodge is that  the services will be for adults. 

At Friendship Lodge  there could be as many as 58 adults, suffering from  drug addiction, mental health issues and life skill problems. 

I couldn’t quite frankly sit through it all and listen to the kind of rhetoric that was being peddled to the 190 people from the area who where being fed a story not even your mother would buy.  

City Councilor Debora Munoz, who was sitting in the rear of the hall, took time to accuse me of a “rant "  for speaking up. That "rant" Councilor was asking questions that I fear will never pass your lips.  I still want to know if this is a done deal cobbled together three years ago by BC Housing  and a few of the employees (who are supposed to answer to  you).  Perhaps you might now ask the question because if it was agreed to by the City, the next question is,  why bother having you.?  It was you who offered up your name for office, you are the one who is paid  to ask the questions, but you were strangely silent the other night .

Then there was another lady who accused me of being a, "shit disturber”.

What a fine compliment, considering who it came from, and I pose this question to her; why didn’t she "shit disturb", and raise the matter of this map that the head table kept referring to?  Not one single existing facility in this city is the same as the one proposed ,and as I have said earlier, do the people of that area of the city have any say in the matters of their neighborhood or are they dictated to? If Rainbow Lodge is so similar, why not then exchange locations?  Not one resident in attendance was opposed to that idea. 

As for the threat I received, the line forms to the right, you will find you’re a long way back in the row.

I will continue to ask questions on behalf of the people in that neighborhood.  They have been victims of what appears to be a legislated move over the past 15 years to put all of the facilties for the homeless into their area along with the drug addicts, pimps and hookers.

History has taught us that you don’t put a chicken coop in the middle of a fox den.  If it is the intention to try and help these poor souls you don’t place a road block in front of them that they may not be able to overcome .Putting them in the midst of a crowd that you’re  trying to get them to break away from is hardly where you start.

BC Housing tried to hang their hat on The Native Friendship Center. Barb Ward- Burkitt is a straight up gal, she said the Queensway location wasn’t the first choice that the Native Friendship center had picked.  BC Housing and of course the City Planners thought otherwise.

On Wednesday morning we were being told that the "map" the city planners kept alluding to was being ,"up dated” that’s the short way of saying  the facilities they had  pinpointed weren’t  comparable afterall with the proposal  for 1656 Queensway.

Given the events this week,  I must caution you that winter will come early this year because a great deal of snow fell on Ron Brent Elementary School the other night.

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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