Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple
I hope you're right. I was a single issue voter to be honest, the encampments. I didn't like what I saw in my neighbourhood all last year (drug addicts injecting in parks, needles left on the ground, violence, fires, sex in the open, you name it). I just hope Cameron takes those issues seriously, and makes sure it never happens again. Personally I don't think you can just put drug addicts in 'affordable housing' and hope the problem goes away, because time and time again that has been shown not to work. Strict enforcement of the bylaws pretty much eliminated all of the above mentioned issues. I hope that doesn't all get torn down.
But I wish him the best of luck in his new position, and I hope we can achieve a better Hamilton in the next four years.
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Believe me, Cameron doesn't think putting drug addicts in affordable housing will make the problem go away. They continue to need wrap around supports that respect and acknowledge them.
But Farr's chasing them around the city sure as shit won't help. Drug addicts aren't children. If you play tag with them, they won't eventually give up and get a job. Strict enforcement of camping by-laws did not fix anything, it just pushed them into different spots you didn't see. Forest trails, parks of other communities in Hamilton rather than yours or the ones you regular. The number of homeless living on the street didn't decrease with whack-a-mole. Which I think is a perfect analogy for Farr's failure. You ever notice in the whack-a-mole game the mole continues to come up through a different hole nom matter how many times you try to hit it? Whack-a-mole is a terrible policy.
Cameron can't solve homelessness, but he will be resting on the expert analysis of how homelessness has been reduced and improved in other communities like ours. I have a lot of respect for an approach that relies on experts, analysis and copying the good work of others rather than emotional responses to a thing many people find themselves disgusted at.