Shelter

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Yee Tong on March 29, 2010 at 3:30pm

Air, Shelter, Water, Food are basic physiological needs...

I want to put the need for Shelter in perspective by comparing it to the need for the Air each one of us breath about 10 million times a year.

I can hardly believe my eyes.
Who would have thought that we'd be talking about access to Air?
Well, if you find this surprising, I argue that talking about access to Shelter is not much different.

It is very easy to forget that air is much more than we can just see with the nakes eye.

Let's look beyond the invisible....

Air is a univeral basic need of not just humans but all life.
Air composition is changing measureably as primarily ocean phytoplankton as well as forests are being erradicated directly and indirectly attributable to industrial and commerical activity.

I think it is important to distinguish that it is mainly industry and commerce ('human activity) that pollutes the air with metals, particulates, persistent organic compounds like PBC and Dioxins, and greenhouse gases.

Commerical and industrial activities are mostly driven by free-trade and corporate profits which in turn are all controlled by the monetary of the world banks, feds and canadian equivalent which are NOT government institutions. They are privately owned and operated by executives that have found ways to evade accountability and hide in the shadows- meeting in private to discuss a unified North American Currency- the Amero- which would give the fractional reserve and world banks more leverage in exploiting hyperinflation and other methods of economic warfare.

Look close enough and you might feel as I do...

There is a clear conflict of interest between being Human and entertaining banking and corporate interests.

You may consider that a bit of a stretch with the preceding discussion on air. The insanity and injustice when it comes to affordable housing is much easier to accept or should I say...NOT accept.

When we're not under a roof (for those of us that are fortunate) we basically wear our shelter here in the northern hemisphere. We need shelter 24/7 to maintain our body temperatures and also reasonable comfort to sleep. Moreover, shelter must be safe and healthy: free of black mold, mildew, toxic off gasing, fire-hazard, earthquake soundness, and it must offer reasonable access to transit, groceries, and other basic infrastructure if you live in a rural or urban setting.

It's much like Air because if you don't have it; you don't really stand much of a chance of getting any from that point forward.

How different really is a lack of access to safe, healthy, and affordable shelter to Air?

It's just a matter of time before exposure to elements will render you weak, sick, and too worn and unpresentable to lift yourself-up from homelessness.

The difference is that lack of air will leave you physiologically dead; whereas, homelessness tortures you by your own will to survive against the odds, until you are only physiologically compromise and socially dead.

Oh, and the alternative is to sell your mind, body, and soul to the establishment inorder to pay rent.

Therefore, Shelter is a human right and must be a constitutional right also.

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Permalink Reply by Randy Chatterjee on March 29, 2010 at 3:56pm

Nice comparison, made even more powerful by considering how residents of Mexico City, Los Angeles, Linfen in China, Calcutta, or even Abbotsford here in the Lower Mainland feel about "their air." Many are in fact suffocating to death, poisoned by sulfur dioxide and other pollutants.

But back to shelter. You raise a key point that escaping from homelessness is made practically impossible by, quite simply, the lack of a home. It is a trap that our society tolerates and even contributes to, and it may get worse before it gets better.

I hope not, but I worry. Much like private healthcare in the US, homelessness will bankrupt us here in Vancouver, first morally and then financially.

Thanks for your message. Keep it up!

Randy

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Permalink Reply by Angela Squires on June 4, 2010 at 3:41pm

Homelessness is the fault of our Provincial Government who have downloaded so many costs onto Municipalities either directly or indirectly. Welfare rates are woefully inadequate as is the minimum wage. Living outside of the Lower Mainland is no cheaper either other than for shelter but food and essentials are often higher priced. Homeless people also cost us more in health and security issues than it would to adequately house them. Drugs are a major problem and despite more social agencies and their highly paid staff concentrated in the DES people are not getting treatment. I recommend www.davidberner.com for a view of actually treating and curing addicts; it is not easy but possible through hard work which I believe our current social agency mindset does not support.

I lived for a while in the south Granville area which surprisingly had some affordable apartments in 2000. Walking in the alleys I would meet polite alcoholics who shared a beer with me and told me how druggies from the east side were ruining the neighbourhood! I would constantly chase druggies away from right outside Shopper's Drug store and complain vociferously to their management. I did not like the way they targeted the elderly especially.

I have been told some beggars make quite a bit more than minimum wage. I do not give mainly because I can't afford it but also because most are on drugs. I have personally moved some on too! What is it here that we do not appear to want to get people off their drug habit?

We are not going to get far until we get rid of the Campbell Liberal Government and yet the NDP are not presenting a truly viable alternative. Now this may have something to do with the strong Liberal Media bias but while I like Carole James she has just not caught my imagination or the public's as a leader. While I was never a supporter of Bill Vander Zalm, at least he has leadership charisma and I have been an anti-HST supporter right from the start.

Cheers, Angela

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Permalink Reply by Randy Chatterjee on June 4, 2010 at 4:41pm

IMHO, we can keep blaming the Province or the Federal Government, and all we will get is more homelessness.

Just take a look at what the Province did when given authority over public housing at Little Mountain. Shelter for over 700 people--long paid for, providing a net surplus to the government, and a safe and healthy community needing no significant police or health attention--is bulldozed for guaranteed private profit for an offshore buyer.

It is time we took matters into our own hands and stopped pretending to be some Third World hell-hole on pubic assistance. If no one has noticed, the "Third World" is now the "Developing World" and much of it is getting wealthier and building a democratic culture. Not us. We are all that is left of a Cold War anachronism describing people and places that are fleeced of all of their resources and tossed a bone.

Enough is enough. It is up to us to stop the sale of public assets, build public housing for Vancouver's residents like every other municipality on earth does, and take responsibility for those who make this city their home.

If we cannot do this during the "best of times," what will it be like when the other shoe drops?

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Permalink Reply by Duric Aljosa on March 17, 2014 at 12:50pm

Thats a good question.
Now, here's a million dollar question:
More or less, there are some 200 countries in the world today

Request To The Government Of The Republic Of Croatia For Receiving ...

Request To Croatian Ministry Of Interior For Urgent Determination O...

Can you please indicate at least one of these 200 governments ready to provide transparent answers?

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Permalink Reply by Randy Chatterjee on March 17, 2014 at 1:53pm

Bhutan. Do I get $1,000,000?

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