Hi all,
I have written to our City Councillors asking them to support social housing and I am writing you to ask if you would do the same.
Their contact information is available at:
http://www.facebook.com/l/XAQGIhujUAQFAwDZ2EzWxxVWAfzpzboLzvaxJNfY2UZIiVg/www.nanaimo.ca/EN/main/municipal/city-council/24thCouncil.html%23Bestwick Here is a copy of my letter, please feel free to copy and paste what you wish. Please pass this message on.
Thanks
To the City Council of Nanaimo:
I am writing to ask you to support the north-end housing for homeless, and, in doing so, show real vision and leadership for our city.
I have worked as a homeless outreach worker in Nanaimo for the last three years and have seen the positive impact that social housing has on homeless individuals. I am very concerned that there is a group of Nanaimo citizens making false allegations, disrespectful statements and spreading hatred in regards to an already marginalized group, such as Nanaimo's homeless population. What concerns me even more is that our elected city officials may back down from this group and decide not to push forward with this much needed social housing project.
Social housing in Nanaimo (including the north-end site) will impact the homeless individuals by: providing individuals with an opportunity to make significant life changes that cannot and will not be made while sleeping outdoors; creating a sense of inclusiveness and community to a group of individuals who often treated as outcasts; and improving the individual's mental and physical health with the supports the social housing will provide.
We have an opportunity in Nanaimo to make a difference not only in the lives of the homeless individuals but to our community. Social housing in Nanaimo (including the north-end site) will impact the community of Nanaimo positively in the following ways: by cleaning up our city parks by allowing those individuals who are currently sleeping in them to attain housing; reducing the number of hospital admissions and emergency room visits due to ailments directly related to sleeping outdoors (such as respiratory illnesses); and the provincial funding to the social housing projects will provide a significant about money towards struggling non-profit organizations which in turn will provide jobs and job security for those working in the field.
For those who support social housing but are not for the North-end location, I ask for City Council to consider the long term vision of Nanaimo. If we do not spread the social housing throughout Nanaimo we will only created a ghettoized downtown core creating strain on the downtown resources. We do not want Nanaimo to reflect that of Vancouver's East side. As you are aware there are many support services available in the North Nanaimo area for homeless individuals including: shopping centres, a library, churches, bus service, thrift stores, and services by fire, police and ambulance, an office for the Ministry of Social Development, Drug and Alcohol services, a crisis counselling clinic, a men's residential treatment centre, a women's post withdrawal treatment centre, a food bank in central Nanaimo, AA and NA meetings, and a mobile mental health crisis response team, a Twenty-Four hour crisis line and several outreach teams for those with mental health and addictions.
Regardless of your personal and moral stance on homelessness and social housing, I cannot emphasis enough that if we allow this group of fear-mongering and hate filled individuals to influence our community decisions, Nanaimo will likely lose the significant amount of provincial funding and in turn maintain our high unemployment rate.
This is an important time for our community. Please help make the right choice: Support Social Housing in the Nanaimo, including the North-end.
Sincerely,
Kathy Dallman
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