don't think for a minute that very wealthy investors have already eyed that whole downtown eastside for real estate opportunities.
Oh definitely not.
Blood is running in the streets, it's time to buy property.
Investors and developers will in fact bank on this somehow on their end.
Harm reduction would cost less but is unpopular. Lots of people go nuts about wasting their tax dollars on anything benefitting anyone but themselves.
The homeless campers and mentally ill/addicts use up fire/paramedic/police resources that cost more than assisted living spaces.
Harm reduction doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s better than ignoring the issue.
Harm Reduction ALONE is unpopular because all it does is ignore the solutions to the issue, while enabling drug culture... IMO, HR alone is a grift.
The "Four Pillars Approach" into solving these social issues have been cited many times in such discussions. Those pillars are "Prevention", "Harm Reduction", "Recovery", and "Enforcement"...
As the REAL problem is that it's the NDP (backed by Trudeau's Liberals) to focus solely on "Harm Reduction", discounting the value of "Prevention", "Recovery", and "Enforcement". HR plans is to stick all the addicts into a rut, and fill it with all the free needles, so-called 'safe supply', and Naloxone, "just to stop them from dying", but leaves no room for accountability or any contingencies if their programs fail. Otherwise, they start crying "stigma", so people will back off and the problems continue on.
"Lots of people go nuts about wasting their tax dollars on anything benefitting anyone but themselves."
YEAH, ..that's how it works... What makes your think people are obligated to believe otherwise? If my tax dollars are going into these half-baked Harm Reduction practices, and the death toll keeps rising either by overdoses or crime; showing zero progress from these social programs that seem to keep taking those tax dollars and producing zero results... You bet people are going to get mad, when they are forced to pay 50% of their earnings just so they can't walk down the street without getting randomly attacked..... what would you expect otherwise? Obligated Kindness?... In human history, you think that ever worked for any Institutionalized Religion trying to gaslight the masses into submission for the "true powers" of this world? Perhaps so, if social issues were at a minimum, but these days, in Trudeau's Canada (and his WEF machinations)? Post-COVID? It doesn't hold the weight it used to. Survival instincts rev up and a person has to do what they have to do. Just like those living on DTES' streets, just like anyone who can still work enough to keep their roof over their heads and afford such latitude that becomes a buffer against living in abject poverty. We're all trying to survive, and when push comes to shove "they who have the most toys win" (in this case, seeing our tax dollars at work sweeping DTES clean)
There is also a component to these equations that seem to get missed a lot by advocate groups is that those people are in fact, STONE COLD LOSERS. Not because they lost at life, I mean we've all taken that trip down the dark side of life one time or another, and most of us do rise above and become stronger and more self-reliant. But there are those who if you were to take that red-carpet cure-all treatment and roll it right up to their toes and even nudge them to put that first foot on such carpet. They would jump right off and go back to their antics. Those people no matter how much money is spent, are total write-offs. Those describe perfectly the type of people that occupy DTES. That's why I don't feel too bad about this sweep and clear, because options are available if getting housing was that important to them, but they chose to be there instead. They only fall back on the "wah wah wah gimmie housing" when everyone else become too fed up with their bullshit, and claim it's a systematic failure of our government, instead of taking personal responsibility to realize what a piece of shit these people really are... but I digress.
HR doesn't work alone. You need the other three to work in unison for results to improve. Look at Portland and San Francisco. Those cities are DEAD for exercising the same HR practices as Vancouver does, and we only just begun this 3 year long decriminalization plan.
