I fully support the application to build homeless housing on Corfield Street in Parksville.
Homeless people are just like you and me. Only their problems have overwhelmed them and they are destitute. Having an address means home and offers hope, restores dignity and is essential to accessing support services.
When you lose your birth certificate and driver’s licence and don’t have a street address, you are nobody and do not exist. A friend and I learned very quickly while trying to help a couple that were down and out. Applying for help is impossible. Door after door closed in our faces as we searched for anyone, any service who would help them. After a month driving from agency to agency, taking them to meetings and trying to engage in a meaningful conversation that would give a helpful outcome we were vested in this relationship and very frustrated.
No address. No help. We decided buy them a used, 32-foot RV in great condition that would be the couple’s first real home. On hearing their story, the seller kindly donated all of the RV contents.
Naively, we never imagined that finding a site for that RV would take another month and result in a lot of abuse, racism, and hate. Eventually, a site in Vancouver was the only one to accept them. Now they have an address, a little dignity and a little funding for food.
We are so lucky to live on this beautiful Island. If you enjoy shelter, reasonable health, friends, family and food on the table. Imagine your life without any of that.
Help others who can no longer help themselves. Please let them have a room of their own, a tiny taste of security, and maybe the possibility of reconstructing their lives.
Alan John
Parksville