Surely our response to the homeless can't be to dump disgusting substances on the places where they pitch their tents. Despite transparent attempts to minimize it, that's what happened in Port Coquitlam.
PoCo joined other ham-handed Metro Vancouver cities when bylaw manager Dan Scoones revealed that unnamed bylaw officials dumped "a peat moss-like fertilizer" on a spot near the Coquitlam River where a homeless man sometimes camped.
What's that? Is it a benign, sweet-smelling organic material completely unlike the nauseating chicken manure recently used by Abbotsford and Surrey to scare away their homeless?
The waste was generally referred in the media as "chicken fertilizer."
Clearly the manure being spread around in PoCo wasn't limited to this homeless person's hovel.
What a pathetic attempt to distance themselves from Abbotsford and Surrey, who were mercilessly vilified for similar actions.
The real manure here is that Abbotsford, Surrey and PoCo don't know which bylaw officers were responsible for spreading these excretory outrages.
Mr. Scoones says he wasn't aware of the action, although he can and has recited chapter and verse the many frustrations that led to the attempt to stink out this homeless person.
PoCo Mayor Greg Moore was forced to defend the city's empathy for the homeless. "We've seen an incredible decrease in homeless residents in Port Coquitlam. We deal with them with respect," said the mayor.
Clearly, spreading fertilizer on a homeless man's shelter doesn't qualify as treating the homeless with respect.
I believe Mayor Moore's sentiments are genuine, but this incident sets PoCo's credibility in this area back 10 years.
I agree with my get-a-job colleague that homelessness is exasperating. Main and Hastings is a disgrace, as are other gathering areas of the homeless. We need to get people off the streets.
If we had sufficient addiction rehabilitation facilities, mental health services and housing, it might make sense to enact vagrancy or "no sleeping in the streets" laws to get people off the streets.
But until then, Mr. Scoones' idea of "empowering our staff to be creative and solve problems" can't ever excuse driving away the homeless with noxious substances.
It's time to name those responsible and fire them, then autocratically disempower everyone else from similar "creative" solutions.
