Quote:
Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple
It would be nice if some of the surrounding cities of similar size (KW, Niagara, Mississauga, Brampton) could build a few of these and take some of the burden off Hamilton. Seems like Hamilton at some point decided to build a few of these, and now we're a destination :/
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I think many larger cities do have the supports -- the organizations that run them saw the need and tried to fill it, including whatever municipal programs are in place. And just based on percentages alone a larger municipality will have more people who require the assistance.
The smaller ones
should have their own, scaled to local need, but I think they tend not to. And why worry about it when there are other places that can provide for the demand?
The playing field for this issue is extremely unbalanced. Even if the province uploaded these social services, we'd still see larger places serving a disproportionate amount of the burden; but they'd just not have to cover much of the funding.
Thing is, even within Hamilton the situation is unbalanced. These centres should not just be in the downtown area of the city. I don't know exactly what's available on the mountain, or in Stoney Creek or Dundas, but I doubt it's remotely comparable (and especially for Ancaster and Waterdown; homelessness, drug dependency, mental health, poverty... none of those are a problem in those suburbs, apparently
)
Anyway, the outcome here looks positive. It will be great to see what Core Urban does with the old buildings on James -- combined with the redevelopment north of the tracks, and along the west harbour waterfront, James between Barton and Guise will be much changed for the better.