25967 replies to this topic

[aastra]

Yet again there's this effort to shift the spotlight away from the tangible & the concrete (what the authorities are doing or not doing) and over to the murky & divisive realm of how people feel.

 

If your modus operandi is to constantly fire off generalized accusations about the hatefulness of other people, what you're really doing is revealing your own hateful nature. When you don't know those other people, when you don't listen to those other people, when you don't regard those other people as individuals, when you spare no opportunity to smear those other people and dismiss their specific concerns... that's pretty much the definition of hateful & disrespectful conduct.

 

For crying out loud, try to stay focused! There are no end of things that can be evaluated & measured & IMPROVED, without requiring the services of Star Trek-style emotion readers.

[mbjj]

you ever notice that there are nearly no Asian homeless people?

Chinese or Korean Canadians, or indo Canadians.

Culture plays a large part in homelessness.

My best friend of over fifty years is of Chinese ancestry. They are such hard workers. Her parents ran a corner store, which I practically grew up in. Hardly ever took a day off. Very generous people too, were very good to me as a kid.

[JimV]

Just a couple of anecdotal observations.

 

Drove down Southgate today.  Noticed the city worker picking up garbage was accompanied by a uniformed security guard.  The guard looked pretty scrawny but I guess there’s the uniform factor and I suppose he had a radio.

 

Went to a car dealership to get some minor repair work done that was required by one of Victoria’s most vulnerable rifling through my car.  I described what happened to the technician.  He was spitting mad, not about my car but the city in general.  He had several choice things to say about the mayor.  I added that the idiot council was also responsible.  He said I was being far too generous in my assessment of the council.  This is pretty much the reaction I get from everyone I talk to these days.

[Mike K.]

Local radio ads for a window repair business now feature a person whose car got broken into. Before it was errant golf balls.

If that’s not a sign of the times, I don’t know what is.

[A Girl is No one]

Remember that complaining about the issues you are personally impacted by such as broken windows or broken into car makes you officially a hater by our government sponsored agencies. In my book if the government continues to support agencies that stir up divisiveness instead of showing an actual interest in helping those they are supposed to help, they own the problem.

[LJ]

Where we are headed...

 

https://youtu.be/Wh6saOx-Q6s

[spanky123]

^ Sorry but that looks like an improvement to what we have here. At least people are not being randomly stabbed and robbed routinely.

[Victoria Watcher]

good grief.



Coun. Charlayne Thronton-Joe said there have been concerns about people moving to the region due to mild climate and the availability of places to camp, but the PiT count eradicated that myth.



https://www.vicnews....t-least-a-year/

[rmpeers]

good grief.



Coun. Charlayne Thronton-Joe said there have been concerns about people moving to the region due to mild climate and the availability of places to camp, but the PiT count eradicated that myth.



https://www.vicnews....t-least-a-year/

Oh, that's classic. Yes, completely eradicated that myth all right.

Edited by rmpeers, 14 August 2020 - 05:29 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

so we have VV forumers and Adam Stirling on the science and logic side.

all other media, politicians and poverty pimps on the fantasy side.

[Mike K.]

Hold on. 82% have lived here for more than one year?

Doesn’t the data show 12% answered they are new arrivals, and 4% didn’t answer or remember? Where does 82% come from, Black Press?

The PiT count found that 82 per cent of people who were surveyed lived in the area longer than one year, with 42 per cent living in the region for five years and 22 per cent residing in Greater Victoria for their entire lives.

[rmpeers]

Hold on. 82% have lived here for more than one year?

Doesn’t the data show 12% answered they are new arrivals, and 4% didn’t answer or remember? Where does 82% come from, Black Press?

The actual report says 84% have been hear a year or more. I notice they always give the percentages because it sounds better than saying that as many as 243 arrived here in the past year. Then the other thing they claim is that half of those people became homeless after arriving here.

[Mike K.]

Ok, I thought Black had it wrong.

Now that the mayor wants to prioritize people who’ve been here for a year or more, the next PIT could could quite possibly have a very small number of respondents who truthfully say they’re new arrivals. Why would you?

[spanky123]

We need to remember that what most of us think as homeless (ie campers) and what the survey counts as homeless are two different things.

 

If you do not have a permanent place to live of your own then the survey considers you homeless. Living with a friend, being in treatment, living in a halfway or transition house, etc, etc are all counted as homeless. Campers represent about 10% (or less) of the 'homeless' counted. This is by design. The count is done at night in the dark so volunteers are not wandering into parks or other unlit areas looking for people in tents to survey.

 

What most people are concerned about are the people moving here and living on the streets and in parks, not those living with their buddies. 

 

If you look at the report, about 150 people were counted as living rough and about 240 people have been here less than a year. It is quite possible then that the majority of the campers are new to Victoria.

 

I would argue that the reason why the PIT count folks refuse to release their data and report the way they do is to hide that fact.

Edited by spanky123, 14 August 2020 - 06:45 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

of course. who is going to say they are newly arrived if free rooms are being given out.

[spanky123]

of course. who is going to say they are newly arrived if free rooms are being given out.

 

Which is the other point, the 'homeless' don't complete the survey and are not vetted. The people filling in the surveys are volunteers recruited by the various poverty promotion groups.  I am not saying it happens but if you were concerned about the %'s of people reporting as newcomers, then the simple fix is to check the box that says > 1 year when filling out the form. Nobody would ever know.

[Victoria Watcher]

or of course there are going to be leading questions and assistance.

“now, Ralph, you’ve been in Victoria over a year, right?”

[spanky123]

or of course there are going to be leading questions and assistance.

“now, Ralph, you’ve been in Victoria over a year, right?”

 

They shouldn't be.

 

I think that most people do their job responsibly but there are also lots of times where the answer is confusing or contradictory and you fill in what you think the person intended to say.

[A Girl is No one]

Ok, I thought Black had it wrong.

Now that the mayor wants to prioritize people who’ve been here for a year or more, the next PIT could could quite possibly have a very small number of respondents who truthfully say they’re new arrivals. Why would you?

Exactly. I think that’s the whole point. Send out the message that it’s not ok to say you’ve been here less than one year, and create an incentive to lie.

Edited by A Girl is No one, 14 August 2020 - 07:28 AM.

[spanky123]

The other lie the poverty promoters are telling is that most people who become homeless already live in Victoria. 

 

What I can tell you from having done the homeless surveys is that many people come to Victoria to live with a buddy or visit friends. After a few weeks they get kicked out (many places have a two week visitor maximum or they wind up in an argument) and find that it is far more expensive to live here then they expected so they wind up on the streets or in shelters.

 

Now the poverty folks will defend themselves and say that they are telling the truth, the person was living here and then became homeless. Remember though that they count living with friends as being homeless in the first place.