Controversial homeless (criminal) shelter closing Aug. 7 
All I can say is....about time! While people are free to live their lives however they want that does not allow them to interfere with other people's enjoyment of their property or neighbourhood. If these "homeless" people were simply people who, either by choice or circumstances, did not have permenant homes then no one would have a problem with providing these shelters. The problem is that being homeless is not the issue here. The issue is the violent, dangerous and (most importantly) illegal activity. The hard drug use (crack, meth, heroin), sex in public (often leaving Hep-C and AIDS-infected used condoms lying around), deficating and urinating in public, assaults and fights. And all this less than 2 blocks of child care facilities, parks and people's homes.
It is laughable that these criminals don't want to stay in the DTES (where these illegal activities are tolerated by residents and police alike). They want to behave like criminals but not live like criminals. Cry me a river!
Controversial Vancouver homeless shelter closing Aug. 7 By Staff, Vancouver SunJuly 30, 2009 9:33 AM
The controversial homeless shelter at Howe Street in Vancouver is being closed Aug. 7 and residents will be housed at Dunsmuir House at Dunsmuir and Richards, the provincial government announced Thursday.
Area residents, many living in expensive high-rise condos on tony Beach Avenue, have complained the Howe Street shelter has attracted drug dealers and prostitutes to the neighbourhood.
The province is leasing the 166-unit Dunsmuir House to replace the 38-bed Howe Street shelter, the province and the city of Vancouver said in a press release.
The Howe Street shelter was opened during last winter's particularly cold and snowy spell and area residents complained they were not consulted.........
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at 17:10 on July 30th, 2009
Hey tell me about it, most times I have to deal with it when I get called down there DTES. Clocktower and Ammo, thats what I am talking about! I dont know, if criminal activity is being conducted and condoned by the residents of the homeless shelter, all I can say, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, then by God, it must be Gregor Robertson!
at 18:28 on July 30th, 2009
How naive are you ? People who have suffered great traumas, have drug issues and are homeless are not criminals, per se.
By and large, they have been systematically victimized. Have you ever stayed at a tax funded shelter ? Have you ever seen staff thugs beat down a disabled man for money ?
Have you ever seen how mentally ill are treated (mis-treated) in local hospitals, dumped on the streets while under heavy medication after and operation ?
Do you get that men with masters degrees engineered two generations of programming designed to get millions hooked on street and prescribed drugs; teens on the street are enslaved and pimped out.
The real criminals who do billions of dollars in damage and cause the death of thousands each year are white collar executives, peddling toxics and food products and microwaves and prescription drugs in order to keep people down.
You have been programmed to hate some half alive human who is on script drugs for lets say PTSD or raped a hundred times, who does not even know what day it is half the time.
You should be OUTRAGED at the banksters and corrupted politicians who are going to bring millions more into poverty and homelessness and drug addiction to your neighborhood...
Think about the machines that put these people out on the streets... if you have never been out there for more than a couple weeks, then you do not know what you are talking about.. you just ignorantly hate people who have no resources.
There are no shelter beds available in SF.
Affordable housing was gobbled up by elite rich people who profit from the misery and the insurance you pay for your car.
SFHomeless Yahoo Group Moderators
Jeff and Anotonio.
at 08:37 on July 31st, 2009
I note that you are American. Perhaps your myopic view is due to the fact that you do not fully nunderstand the differences between the social and community infrastructure that exists there and that which we have here in Canada. If so then you bias and ignornace of Canada's socialist safety network is understanable. I spent 5 years living 2 blocks from the worst corner in Canada (and maybe North America) for drugs. I am also a lifetime Vancouver resident. I know a thing or two about which I speak. Additionally I am in no way connected nor do I benefit (directly or indirectly) from the poverty industry. Do you?
The people in question (in the shelters in False Creek) are criminals not the mentally ill. They have been offered shelter and have refused. Why? Because they would be prevented from carrying on their lawless, criminal lifestyles.
They have demonstrated a complete lack of willingness to abide by even the most basic tennents of a social contract. I suppoprt housing for the truly needy and help for those with mental illness and addictions and I can tell you that the situation in False Creek was not helping anyone improve their lives. How can you pretend to be a defender of the needy when you would support a situation that facilitats open and public hard drug use, survival prostitution, violent assaults and a complete lack of any possibility for these people to improve their lives.
In addition what do you have to say to those who's young children attend the schools and daycares just a few hundred feet away? Do you have children? Would you want them playing in an environment littered with used rigs and disease-infected condoms?
I suggest you educate yourself about the particular situation that exists here before offering your opinion. This situation was unacceptable and had to be eliminated. I stand by each and every one of my original comments.
at 10:40 on July 31st, 2009
I just happened upon your story and read little of your background and I question it as well as your logic. To have been a speechwriter for someone I would have suspected that you would have a better spelling than I see in your stories as well as the comments that you post. We are all entitled to our opinion on matters so we must respect that regardless as to how wrong you might be. have a blessed day.
at 14:11 on July 31st, 2009
Jarrett,
It is sad to see that the rumours making the rounds about NP political censorship are true. I have read some pretty outrageous left-wing (politically correct) rants that get by without NP Editor interference. If NP wants to call itself a "journalism" site then free speech should be its founding principle. Just because you do not like a poster's characterization of a politically-charged issue should not motivate you first to act as the PC police. Do you not think your readers have the intelligence to make their own minds up about the accuracy and/or value of contributors' political comments? I can only assume you see that my views, in addition to being those of the majority and perhaps not fitting your particular view of the world, are too damaging to the social engineering agenda
that you seem to be trying to protect from criticism.
May I suggest, instead, that you write a reply to my post rebutting my statements. My comments are based on media reports that include the police, local residents, respected professional journalists from local and provincial media as well as my personal observations from my own visits of the area in question. In the absence of your rebuttal I can only assume your perspective is not as well supported by the facts.
-Ray