Well three cheers for Vancouver’s new mayor and for First United. The Province ran a front page article today of some homeless sleeping in pews of a church. As soon as I saw the photo I knew where it was First United. I saw the same thing during the Woodwards Squat housing crisis. I was really surprised and impressed to see them open up their sanctuary for the homeless. Now that is holy ground I thought.
Well thanks to Vancouver’s new mayor Gregor Robertson they’ve done it again. They’ve opened up their chapel doors to the homeless.
"Urgency is what this is all about," said Robertson, the team chairman. I don't want to see anybody dying on the streets this winter. We will be working diligently over these coming weeks to open and secure shelter and transitional housing as quickly as possible."
Looks like Mayor Robertson is rising to the challenge. We do have a housing crisis. We closed Riverview and put all the mentally ill on the street. We made drastic changes to social assistance and many can’t fill out all the forms and fulfill all the requirements so they go without. A civilized society that tramples the homeless does not exist. I’m glad we’ve taken one small step in the right direction.
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