The only solution to homelessness is……
How the mega mega-wealthy in LA and San Francisco put up with the plague on the streets is beyond me. The cruelty in their hearts must be as impressive as their bank accounts. Up here in the demented Dominion, we just buy the homeless hotels and serve them 24/7. So far, the province has bought three hotels, and is in the process of planning for another 40 rooms. The cost is nasty, but Malcom Gladwell in an extensive New Yorker essay a few years ago, estimated the lifetime cost of caring for someone on the streets as just over $1,000,000.
If you don’t do anything, they’ll cost you a hundred grand a year. If you do something, give them an apartment and a caseworker, they’ll cost you $25,000 year.
Gladwell, NPR, February 2006
Capital Daily reports today that the province has spent $1.8 million from its supportive housing fund to buy a former rooming house shuttered for 17 years. The new facility to be constructed on the Yates site would include 40 units and provide meals and 24/7 supportive services. Construction will not begin until December 2021.
“This project is the next step in our ongoing work to make sure vulnerable people in Victoria have a place to call home, with wraparound supports to help them build a better future,” said Carole James, MLA for Victoria-Beacon Hill.
No civilized society should have people living on the streets, no matter how depraved, addicted, and degraded they may be.
