If only we could make a buck on homeless

 If there was money to be made on homelessness, it would vanish overnight. It sounds stupid, but that is in fact the case, isn't it? Our world revolves around making money, making a profit. So, as crass as it sounds, as it truly is, how can we get rich off the homeless? There is the question to ponder this Christmas season, this Giving Season.

Let's just look at what we've done for the homeless so far:

We have given them a meal. But they are HOMELESS.

We have given them socks and underwear. But they are HOMELESS.

We have vans of first-aiders treating their frostbite and giving them rides to emergency rooms. But they are HOMELESS.

Free coffee, free water. But they are HOMELESS. 

We have a couple of shelters where a few of them can sleep cheek-by-jowl at night if they can pretend their fellow residents aren't screaming at mental demons or are threatening to kill them. A frozen tent on the side of the road seems a better alternative for many. 

Here in Ontario our premier, Doug Ford, has hit upon a solution.

"Enough is enough," Ford thundered this week, a nice three-word slogan repeated by his fellow Conservatives. Slogans work best if they are three words it seems. "Axe the tax," are about the only words federal Conservative leader Pierre Polievre says these days and apparently, according to the polls, he will become our next prime minister.

Anyway, Ford is going to show he is tough on homelessness. That is the old dichotomy right-wing thinkers like to pose for every social predicament. "Are you tough on crime or soft on crime?" Same thing for the homeless now.

"Enough is enough!" Either stop being homeless or face a $10,000 fine and up to six months in prison!

You can't make stuff like this up. People who don't have enough money for a room in the cheapest rat-infested accommodation are going to be threatened with $10,000 fines. That will show them!

Ford has also shut down safe-injection sites, including here in Thunder Bay, and believes all homeless people are drug addicts who simply chose that as their lifestyle. And to show he isn't really the Grinch, he is promising to increase drug treatment facilities in the future. But the homeless are here now. We need answers now.

Thunder Bay almost made a decision that would have made a difference. City administration who were tasked with finding a solution recommended using a vacant city block as the site of temporary individual homeless shelters. These would be small, box-like structures that would have a door, window, bed and not much more. But they would be heated and would have a door that could be locked. They would be arranged around a central comfort station with flush toilets, showers and washing machines. 

And that, according to the homeless themselves, would be a huge help. Here is what they say is so important to them: a place to be secure, a place to get warm, a place to safely store their belongings, a place where they can charge their cell phones, a place with an address.

You can't get a job if you don't have an address. You can't get a job if you don't have a cell phone. You can't get a job if you and your clothes aren't clean.

What about addiction? There is no hope of moving out of addiction if you don't first have safe shelter. Period.

Lots of people became homeless because of marital breakups, lost employment, illness or a combination of these things. Most of society today is living pay cheque to pay cheque.

Hardly anyone wants to be an addict. But when you are living on the street here are the cold, hard facts: you don't have $2,000 for an apartment; you don't have $200 for a motel room; but you do have $20. A bottle of alcohol or a hit of fentanyl is the only way to make life tolerable.

The Thunder Bay plan got squashed when businesses in that area had a fit. They don't want to see a homeless village in their area. There's no money to be made from them.

Merry Christmas.