Abbotsford using 'manure' to drive out the homeless
 

wow, crazy... city staff who organized this should be canned.

I mean, I know we all think it.. 'wow, that bum stinks' or 'some street scum tried to clean my windshield'... but where is the humanity in this?


BUT as a side note, unfortunately a 'camp' of homeless brings ALOT of problems such as drug use, public urination, ....etc... so its a tough call.

WHAT would you do?




Abbotsford, B.C., sorry for using manure to drive out homeless - British Columbia - CBC News

The City of Abbotsford has apologized for spreading chicken manure over a popular gathering place for the homeless in an apparent bid to drive them out of the city.

"I am deeply sorry for our actions," city manager George Murray wrote in an email obtained by CBC News.

"As city manager, I take this situation very seriously and retain full responsibility for the manner in which we dealt with this incident."

The practice of using chicken manure to drive away the homeless came to light after local advocate James W. Breckenridge wrote a column titled "This Stinks" in the Abbotsford Today community newspaper.

According to Breckenridge, the city has waged an "ongoing war on the homeless," driving people "from spot to spot around Abbotsford like nuisance animals."

Meanwhile, the city has failed to provide a viable housing alternative to camping for the homeless, Breckenridge says.

The City of Surrey used a similar tactic in 2009 — spreading chicken manure outside a busy resource centre for the homeless — but was forced to remove it following outrage from community members.

In Abbotsford, Murray has vowed the city will remove the manure from the site and work with the community to resolve the issue.

They interviewed a guy who lives across the street and said he's scared to let his daughter outside and they stay far away from the park because there's used needles everywhere
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Also partly because even though Abbotsford has very high rates of injection drug use, they refuse to have a needle exchange claiming that it would only encourage them.

Because obviously not having a needle exchange is fixing the problem oh so well.

The city council is considering rescinding the bylaw prohibiting harm reduction centers, it likely will not stand much longer.
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why know just do a bum fight? Let them gum fight each other on Live TV and the winners gets some crack and money. They make some money that way, and is fun to watch Bum fight.

Ummmm, can we get that in English?

Bahahahaaa the grammatical and autocorrect errors cracked me up
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Abbotsford is a strange little world.

My family lives there, and when I first moved out to BC, that's where I lived. First thing I noticed...big religion. Buy in bulk and distribute at every opportunity. Churches the size of shopping malls.

Next thing? Teenagers with strollers. Everywhere children with children.

They really didn't seem to know how to deal with big boy city problems, like, the not so sexy stuff that cities actually have to deal with.

city Councillors should be fired, arrested, and have shit shoved down their throats then when they puke make them bathe in it

shit like that really enrages me (no pun intended)

Churches are not the size of shopping malls, they're equivalent to the size of churches in other cities. The only examples of distribution of religion I've ever seen are two protests, but I've also seen two gay straight alliance protests, so they effectively cancel each other out. In my mind, at least.

The proportion of young parents appears to be high in Abbotsford, I'll give you that.

Abbotsford is impressively well-run, generally. YXX and Tradex show significant profits, and AESC is approaching profitability (and initial losses were expected). The APD has transformed Abbotsford into one of the safest cities in Canada, despite having the highest crime rate in Canada in recent years. And, the religious vote has essentially been told to sit down, shut up, and realize that they live in the modern world by city council, through repeated votes against their moral initiatives.

Chicken manure on homeless camps isn't a formal policy passed by city council...

I would rather attack the people truly at fault, which are probably one or two low level managers in the parks department.

pouring shit in your own town...just seems like setting your own house on fire so no one can harm it...why not try something like adding more social programs or greater police presence or something...i dunno maybe i'm delusional...

I'm surprised homeless people even want to live in abbotsford... No one wants to live in abbotsford
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Abbotsford is growing immensely, to say no one wants to live in abbotsford is fucking ignorant.

Hahahaha, I thought the same thing too, but it actually is growing in parts it seems. Lots of my white friends live there
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I've always said that the homeless should be tattooed and tagged. This is just me and I'll get failed for sure ..but:

Tagging homeless allows provinces to make a case for increased federal budget on social programs. It provides a metric of where these homeless people are originating and if they are coming to BC for calmer weather, for exmaple. Secondly, I would put the homeless to work to build roads, dig ditches, etc in a sort of work-camp environment, where they can detox, earn some money, get fed and have a roof over their heads. They would then be transitioned into social housing and reintegrated into society.

I'm tired of getting harassed at gas stations for "hey man, i just need money for gas, etc" If you want to be really homeless you will be tagged as such.

Note: If you think its inhumane, then think about the taxes you pay to keep society going. The homeless get free 1st responders from cops/ambulance, etc. I work hard for my money, I'd rather have resources diverted and prioritized to the tax payers.

fight shit with shit

directly across the street from the location in question is a salvation army shelter, additional groups also work in the area almost nightly. the APD visit the area multiple times daily, along with frequent patrols. the city and community orginizations are attempting to affect change and improvement, but solving homelessness and drug addiction is not plausible so these areas will inevitably exist.

an additional detail is the history of the location, it's next to a set of railway tracks. on multiple occasions homeless people have passed out on the tracks and the sad, predictable result came to pass. that being the case, the city has a legitimate argument for wanting to move the encampment. i'm absolutely not defending the approach, though.
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Bums on e. hastings should be write offs in our society, 30 km/h in the zombie zone :fuckthatshit:

I've always wanted to do things like they do in Europe where they mandate that you must carry ID with you at all times. Unfortunately, however, because you need an address to get an ID and because not being able to get an ID because you don't have an address would be discriminatory, it will never come to pass.

Having a single centralized ID card for all your services (like the DL/Carecard that's coming out) that is registered and works for any and every government service would be a huge step towards actually monitoring the costs of "the great unwashed" that people complain about. Finding out how often they use public or charitable services and being able to accurately track who is where and when and doing what...

But if we're going to track it more accurately, people will clamour for those who are acting badly to be punished appropriately, which means that the people who would benefit most from it will avoid it like the plague, and here we are in exactly the same position...

You know...this shit is getting fucking annoying.

Two different threads, two different insults on where people live, from the same guy! Yes, we get it, surrey is a punchline to a joke that gets told all over. The joke, for those that don't get it:

"OMG...that's pretty dumb. Doesn't surprise me for a person from..."

If you are on the east coast? Newfoundland
East Coast of the US? West Virginia
Live in Vancouver? Surrey.

Now Abbotsford too! It's the same joke! If you don't want to live there, then don't. But it gets a little annoying to have someone pop in a thread, whoring out with a worn punchline for a few people to hit the thanks button.

I'm getting tired of this weak ass attempts at trolling/humour, and there are like 5 accounts right now doing it.

If you don't have something to contribute, don't try.

Seems like a good idea but they have to want to improve their situation first. Some of the social programs in Vancouver are amazing but some homeless folks just choose to live the way they do. Whether it's a choice or mental illness or whatever I don't know but still.

Don't be tired of it. I use every one of those opportunities to tell people "No." Whether they're Filipino charity scam ladies or people trying to sign me up for credit cards or beggars or people asking me for bus fare..."No." Not "I don't have any change." or "I don't have time." or even "No, thank you.". Just "No." and if they bitch at you, tell them simply because you don't want to. Don't back down. You don't owe these people. They encroached themselves on your time and space. You don't need to make excuses.

Filipino scam lady: "Don't you want to help out poor children?" Me: "Of course not." Lady: "You don't have time?" Me: "I have plenty of time. I'm just wandering around. I just don't want to give you any money."

Asshole at gas station: "Hey man, can you spare some change so I can take the bus?" Me: "No." Asshole: "You don't have any change?" Me: "I'm just not going to give it to you."

I might say "No, thank you." only to legit charities because those people are doing some good but otherwise, just embrace the no.

K serious post. IMO people move to abbotsford for budgetary reasons, not because its the hip growing place to be, it grows because its cheap. But other wise people WANT to live in vancouver, burnaby
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I had a co-worker who was paid $70+k while working in Vancouver, and living in a townhouse in New West. He accepted a job offer in Mission, and moved to a house in Abbotsford.

My guess is that his new job is higher paying, AND he has a bigger place for less $$$. So here's an example of someone who wanted to go there.

He wanted to go for the money. Give him the same job and pay in both locations, and tell me what he picks.