Dear editor,
Having recently returned to the Comox Valley, I was shocked to see that the population of homeless people seems to be much greater than when I left.
It is a terrible thing to have no roof over your head, especially as winter is approaching, and to face each night hoping for a place to sleep out of the weather. So I looked in the paper to see what the City of Courtenay is doing about this situation.
I found a small article entitled “Shelter deadline Jan. 6” regarding a search for property for a homeless shelter. This is not going to be of much help to those facing this winter in the open, is it?
And according to the article, the process of finding a place for homeless shelter has been going on since 2008 with no results. Why on earth does it take over three years to decide where to build something so that these members of our community have a place to sleep at night?
And yet in the same paper there was a much larger article describing renovations to City Hall which are going to cost over half a million dollars, including “revitalization of the exterior entrance, including new landscaping, benches and seating areas and pavers."
Coun. Jon Ambler said the renovation “…solves some fundamental problems that have been bugging us for quite awhile.”
It would be nice if you considered the plight of the homeless in your city a fundamental problem that has been bugging you for quite awhile, and acted on it as speedily as you acted on the City Hall upgrade.
It would seem that the City of Courtenay has its priorities upside down. Shouldn’t the welfare of the citizens of your city be more important than new landscaping at City Hall?
Well, I suppose the homeless will at least have some new benches to sit on. But I’ll bet you won’t let them sleep there.
Ellen Rainwalker,
Cumberland