Editor:
I didn’t get around to writing a letter in response to Mr. Griffin’s ignorant and dangerous letter regarding the issue of whether we need to build supported housing for marginal members of White Rock. I am glad that Ian Routledge did write in, and wanted to assure him that there are many people here that would not support Mr. Griffin’s comments.
Persons who are homeless, have a drug addiction or a mental illness, have always been a part of our community, as invisible as they may have seemed. Persons with these challenges will only become more visible, as affordable housing disappears.
While I can agree that huge towers of social housing are not the solution, I feel very strongly that our community has a responsibility; that is in the best interests of our community as a whole to build housing that provides a home for all economic levels of our city.
This housing needs to be integrated into our community, in a way that best supports and connects people. I suspect Mr. Griffin is concerned mostly about what happens when you create a high rise ‘ghetto’, the sort found in Regent Park in Toronto. I, too, would not want to see that as a solution. However, his comments do not suggest any solution, except to keep people out of White Rock, who are already here. I
know a soon-to-be-homeless man, who lives on a disability pension, but lost his housing when his partner died, leaving him unable to meet the escalating rents.
David is a kind and gentle person, with a head injury from a fall at work, something that could happen to anyone. I would like to know where the housing is, that he could afford, for $600 month, and since it is not there, where it is to be built. Perhaps Mr. Griffin feels David should leave for the DES, but I personally feel it is people like Mr. Griffin that should leave, for it is their lack of compassion and humanity, that make our community less the sort of neighborhood I want to live in.
Brenda Worden, White Rock