Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple
A couple? Have you been near the YWCA or GO Station. Literally hundreds roaming around that area high on drugs or in a psychotic state. Pretending the problem isn't there won't solve anything.
|
His version of "downtown" probably just involves the king st/king william st area - many people forget there is a much larger area that encompasses "downtown".
I have been to Detroit Michigan and Flint Michigan - we are not there yet - that really did put things into perspective for me growing up - but we are on our way there if we don't do something. And yes, I remember how it was 20 to 30 years ago - I remember when it flourished and then I remember when it collapsed and mental hospital patients were released into the downtown. I once tried to help a homeless man - I gave him about 50 dollars and he kept asking for more and more and more money - you try to give these people food and they throw it out, because they just want money for drugs.
Yes, granted some are starving - they used to run a program called Hamilton out of the cold which used to help feed these people - but I think it stopped during the pandemic. I would love to know each of these junkie's/homeless people's stories to understand how they got to where they are, it might help to put programs in place to help prevent others from meeting the same fate. Or at least better programs of prevention vs just treatment. Like what made them turn to drugs? What caused them to lose their homes? It seems like the more logical course to be able to address it. It can't all just have been bad decision making - most don't turn to drugs unless their life situation is pretty bad..
Anyone remember the stories of the shantytown village that used to exist under the bridge around princess point? It took them years to clear that one out back in the 1800/1900s. This isn't something new for Hamilton unfortunately. Things in the past in some ways were FAR worse than they are today when it came to disparities of poverty - did you know there was one time when there were no trees on the escarpment, because they had all been cut down for lumber/firewood? There were entire poverty stretches of hamilton in the 1800s - imagine after the great fires that burned a lot of the old wooden city to the ground..
The only issue with closing the injection sites was at least picking up needles would have been localized to those areas - now people are going to have to watch out for needles in random places. I mean, they probably did anyways but still. I remember as a kid the videos of don't pick up a needle if you see one advertisements. Those probably need to come back.. not that I watch commercials anymore...