Dear editor,I have been meaning to write this ever since I started seeing some of the letters to the editor and articles in the newspaper from merchants in the downtown Courtenay area who oppose the location of the proposed homeless shelter/supportive housing project.We take our dry cleaning to Comox Valley Cleaners, we go for lunch at Go Mango, we go to Shoppers Drug Mart, my wife gets her nails done at Level 10 Eurospa, and we buy wine from the government liquor store.The location of the homeless shelter in the 800 block of Cliffe Avenue will not change our shopping habits one bit. We will still go to the library, and the art gallery, and to stores on Fifth Street, and to our doctor in the plaza opposite Local’s and Rhodos Coffee. And in fact, we’ll keep going to Local’s and Rhodos Coffee.We, like many other people who now live in the Comox Valley and who spend the money we earn on local merchants as much as we possibly can, know that there are homeless people living in and around the downtown area now.Unfortunately, many have to sleep under the 17th Street Bridge, or in vacant house porches, or behind stores.I would much rather see that vacant lot on Cliffe Avenue (and it’s been vacant for as long as we’ve lived here — hardly a great “entry point” to the downtown area) used for a well-constructed building offering shelter and hope to those among us who need it.Brian Walter,Courtenay