Editor:
In your Sept. 1 story, “Signs of support for shelter,” St. Hilda’s Rev. Clarence Li alleges that the proposed shelter on Ebbtide Street has only one residential neighbour. This must be me, since I am looking down upon the proposed spot from my windows at the Ebbtide Place townhouse development – and provided that the other 80 owners are looking the other way.
The proposed shelter location is 50 steps away as the crow walks (at that distance, the crow might as well walk), right across the street from the Ebbtide Place townhouses, and 50 steps away from the Ebbtide Village complex with another 18 townhouse units, and 100 steps away from Surf Circle with dozens of homes. It is, in fact, closely surrounded by a neighbourhood of 100 homes.
If the most important question, according to Reverend Li, is not the location but how the shelter is managed, then why the obfuscation? Why pretend that there is but one neighbour when in fact there is a community of hundreds living 100 steps away in every direction?
And the so-called 40 beds seem to include a kitchen and laundry, which has received no mention in RainCity Housing’s brochure.
As for the public’s response, wouldn’t it make sense to appreciate the opinion of the people directly affected by this project?
Martin Machler, Sechelt