PortaPotties...The Solution for the Downtown Eastside.
Good God!
The brain trust is at it again. A conservative estimate of 5000 drug-addicted persons living in a 10 block radius, and the powers that be are convinced that portable toilets will help.
Okay, I'll admit, feces and urine appearing on sidewalks and in alleys is not pleasant, and is bad for business, as well as being a health hazard, but these people need real help, not half a dozen Johnny-On-The-Spot self-cleaning toilets. People need toilets inside affordable, safe, clean housing units. They need addiction services that have proper funding, they need support: physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological. They need to be embraced by their communities, and made to feel a part of society. There are not enough beds in long-term addiction/recovery programs anywhere in this province, and the front line workers are overworked, underpaid, and constantly facing funding crises. The people who dedicate their careers to helping the most vulnerable of our citizens are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. How can they be expected to help people who cannot help themselves if they are forever fighting for the bare minimum in government support?
The Downtown Eastside is a war zone. The brave souls who try their best to eradicate the horror for one person at a time face an uphill battle. The public, by and large, turns a blind eye to the population that calls the area around Main and Hastings home. At best, people donate to the Food Bank or the Salvation Army and pat themselves on the back for helping "the less fortunate". At worst, predators hunt and harm those who are not strong enough or well enough to protect themselves. Most people just cannot, will not or do not identify with the drug addicted, the mentally ill, the sex trade workers, the throwaways, the runaways, the used, abused and abandoned. Too many believe that most residents of the Downtown Eastside "deserve" to be there. Who deserves to be reduced to defecating on a sidewalk? These citizens of Canada are people, not human garbage. They are daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins, and sadly, grandmothers and grandfathers. They were all somebody's newborn at one point in their lives.
The decision to install portable toilets as a solution to a gigantic human tragedy is a slap in the face not only to the residents of Canada's poorest postal code, but every person who dedicates her/his life to trying to help people escape this misery.
That this hellish pit of despair exists in this country is an abomination, but nothing will fundamentally change unless it is the will of the people. All people.
The brain trust is at it again. A conservative estimate of 5000 drug-addicted persons living in a 10 block radius, and the powers that be are convinced that portable toilets will help.
Okay, I'll admit, feces and urine appearing on sidewalks and in alleys is not pleasant, and is bad for business, as well as being a health hazard, but these people need real help, not half a dozen Johnny-On-The-Spot self-cleaning toilets. People need toilets inside affordable, safe, clean housing units. They need addiction services that have proper funding, they need support: physical, emotional, spiritual and psychological. They need to be embraced by their communities, and made to feel a part of society. There are not enough beds in long-term addiction/recovery programs anywhere in this province, and the front line workers are overworked, underpaid, and constantly facing funding crises. The people who dedicate their careers to helping the most vulnerable of our citizens are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. How can they be expected to help people who cannot help themselves if they are forever fighting for the bare minimum in government support?
The Downtown Eastside is a war zone. The brave souls who try their best to eradicate the horror for one person at a time face an uphill battle. The public, by and large, turns a blind eye to the population that calls the area around Main and Hastings home. At best, people donate to the Food Bank or the Salvation Army and pat themselves on the back for helping "the less fortunate". At worst, predators hunt and harm those who are not strong enough or well enough to protect themselves. Most people just cannot, will not or do not identify with the drug addicted, the mentally ill, the sex trade workers, the throwaways, the runaways, the used, abused and abandoned. Too many believe that most residents of the Downtown Eastside "deserve" to be there. Who deserves to be reduced to defecating on a sidewalk? These citizens of Canada are people, not human garbage. They are daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, uncles, aunts, cousins, and sadly, grandmothers and grandfathers. They were all somebody's newborn at one point in their lives.
The decision to install portable toilets as a solution to a gigantic human tragedy is a slap in the face not only to the residents of Canada's poorest postal code, but every person who dedicates her/his life to trying to help people escape this misery.
That this hellish pit of despair exists in this country is an abomination, but nothing will fundamentally change unless it is the will of the people. All people.
posted by Alphamutt at 10:19 PM
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