The B.C. government has to be given credit for its lightning-fast response to the death of a homeless man on the Sunshine Coast.
Last Saturday, two days after the story broke, the province rushed an emergency outreach team to Sechelt to open and staff the Coast’s only cold weather shelter starting that same night. BC Housing immediately committed $40,000 in additional funding, making up the shortfall from the loss of a federal grant. The result is that the shelter will remain open every night until the end of March, instead of only during extreme weather. Extra staff is being hired, and the experienced Portland Hotel Society team that was sent in is providing valuable training to the local shelter workers.
The public also came through, donating more than $3,000 in just two days after Sechelt resident Paula Howley launched an online GoFundMe campaign called Keep Coast Shelter Open 4 Winter.
Overnight, it seemed, a gaping need in the community had been filled – at least for this winter. And it was all because Harry Paul, a regular shelter user, died on a bench in Gibsons on a cold November night when the shelter was closed.
The timing of the provincial’s government’s response can’t be ignored. B.C. is poised right now to bring in hundreds of Syrian refugees to house, feed and support at the taxpayers’ expense. Communities are being mobilized for the task. The optics of a native-born Canadian dying outside in the cold, essentially because he had zero access to basic shelter, has led some people to seriously question our priorities. The fact is, we have our share of refugees in our own country – homeless, jobless, hungry, their lives in some cases at almost daily risk – and these people are Canadians.
In her thoughtful and engaging column this week, former associate publisher Cathie Roy takes aim at “the suddenly pious” attitude of those who weren’t too concerned about the country’s social ills yesterday, but are now asking, “How can we afford to welcome strangers when our own people are being so neglected?”
But it’s not an either-or situation or a spurious argument – and indeed many people have been making similar points for years. If we are rich enough to help the downtrodden from the rest of the world, we should be rich enough to help our own. It’s that simple.
Harry Paul had big medicine in the end. Thanks to Harry, the homeless in the community will have help this winter. The important thing now is to ensure that help is there as long as it’s needed.
