Two key points are being lost in the current debate on homelessness.
First, Burnaby already hosts homeless people. So they are not "someone else's" concern; they are also our neighbours.
Second, civic taxpayers do not save when Burnaby lacks emergency shelter. They instead fund expensive and ineffective civic services for the homeless.
The meter clicks each time residents contact police to report homeless persons. It keeps running when attending officers lack options other than writing tickets or making arrests (with immediate release from custody as purported "crimes" become real "misdemeanors" at booking.)
The Mental Health Commission of Canada's report, Beyond Housing volume 3, which was released in Fall 2012, now estimates the waste: "For many participants (in the ongoing national study of homelessness services), more stable living conditions contribute to a shift away from the frequent, heavy, and sometimes inappropriate use of expensive resources (hospital/inpatient care, emergency rooms, police detentions) to more efficient and effective alternatives (community services, telephone calls, home visits).
"For participants who were using the most services before the study began (high service users), this results in an overall savings to government of $9,390 per person per year. In other words, for every dollar spent, $1.54 is saved through the reduction in other shelter, health and justice services."
Even Mayor Derek Corrigan and Burnaby-Deer Lake MLA Kathy Corrigan pay more than they should in taxes as Burnaby RCMP officers try ineffectively to "help" the homeless on their behalf.
How much more? Informal detachment data suggest that three to five calls per day (five per cent of volume) pertain to the homeless. A five per cent slice of $40 million in annual civic funding is $2 million (or $20 million wasted over 10 years). And there may be more to come.
The B.C. Court of Appeal set provincial precedent by ordering the City of Victoria to cease enforcing anti-camping bylaws while it lacks sufficient shelter beds for local homeless people.
(This was affirmed in a second ruling that Victoria need not "help" the homeless during daylight because it has sufficient off-street space for them by day - that closes at night.)
How much more explicit must judges be that homelessness falls into civic jurisdiction?
Would Mayor Corrigan waste more tax money fighting the precedent in court after advocates for the homeless target Burnaby's lack of shelter beds?
I urge him to instead site a Burnaby shelter/ transition facility and contribute civic funds to construction in recognition of future civic savings. This facility could include shelter space and activity space for social workers that can deliver effective services to the homeless.
(Explicitly planning for "dual" use would help ensure that it remains a triage center - an "emergency room" for the homeless - and not become a permanent shelter.)
Embracing such a facility may also head off another pending political disaster: sale of the Willingdon lands (precluding any use for new Burnaby Hospital buildings or continued use for addiction treatment.)
In 2009, the empty 300bed Willingdon remand prompted bickering among New Democrats and B.C. Liberals.
In 2013, Mayor Corrigan's belated recognition of Burnaby's true interests may help persuade the province to suspend any sale, remove the fence, and lease the building for remodeling into shelter space. A civic contribution toward remodeling the interior might also prompt the province to fund the necessary supporting social services and social agency office space from it's share of the $1.54 saved for every dollar invested in properly serving the homeless.
I close by noting Burnaby homeless people with steady access to indoor plumbing will look much like the rest of us (not drawing the police or EMS when on a street.) And isn't this what we all really want?
I fail to understand why a purported progressive like Corrigan does not get this. But it would be fitting that a former Oakalla guard "escapes" his current views of homeless people through helping to remake an unused jail into active transition housing (while saving nearby provincial land for future use as Burnaby Hospital buildings.)
The late Reverend Tommy Douglas, CCF Premier, national NDP leader, Burnaby MP (and minister of the cloth!) would approve (as would all pragmatic progressives.)
G. Bruce Friesen is president of the Burnaby Civic Greens.
