Chinatown residents worry about safety
CBC reports that residents of Chinatown are worried about safety around the daycare and are calling on the city to do more for the homeless and the drug use in their neighbourhood.
Fair enough, but is the city to blame? A quick look finds that cities all over the West are coping with the same problem. Toronto, Boston, New York, London, Paris, cities in Spain, Italy, even in northern Europe, which we tend to think manages things better than most places: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam. Not enough new housing is being built anywhere, and new buildings are mostly pitched at the elite. The homeless have access to far stronger drugs than we’ve faced in the past. Nobody has solutions for this complex problem. It’s a big‑picture issue, and cities can only offer bandaid solutions.
I’m not saying this entirely excuses the city. But what can even the police do? Round people up – and then what?
Ian 10:52 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
Housing is both a human right and a profitable asset, and that’s the problem.
“It seems like everyone is talking about housing these days. For many, it is in a state of crisis. But for others, it is a market doing exactly what it should be doing: making money. The crux of the housing problem is that it is both a basic human right and a commodity from which to extract wealth.
Most housing debates largely ignore this contradiction. Those who oppose new developments and those who believe we need more housing both focus on numbers, design, zoning and density. These perspectives miss key questions about housing for whom, against whom, who profits and who is excluded.
…
To make cities affordable, upzoning will need to consist primarily of new social housing and other forms of ownership such as co-ops and rent-controlled apartments that are off limits to speculators.”
Chris 12:52 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
>But what can even the police do? Round people up – and then what?
One idea some jurisdictions have tried or will try is forced rehab.
Kate 13:47 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
Why Forced Addiction Treatment Fails
(A thing that surprised me in that NYTimes article is the repeated mention of family. My impression has usually been that the homeless – the true homeless, people who’ve been in the street for awhile and may never have known, or have forgotten, any other way to live – don’t have family, for all kinds of reasons.)
Kevin 13:55 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
There’s a lot of room between forcibly institutionalizing someone and the free-for-all that we currently seem to have.
I think that at some point, some govt will pass a law curtailing the rights of those caught up in addiction courts, and I only hope that said govt will adequately fund and train the caregivers responsible for shepherding addicts.
Kate 15:12 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
How do you punish someone who hasn’t got anything? People passing laws think in terms of fining or, if need be, jailing somebody who refuses to obey. But if you have no resources, fining is a futile exercise, and if you have no home and no anchors to continuous existence like a job or a partner, jail is actually an offer of a roof over your head and basic food.
So if you go to a guy in the street and say “Get in the wagon and go to rehab or else!” what have you got for “or else”?
Kevin 17:00 on 2024-06-09 Permalink
Kate
I agree with you.
The people being brought in for thefts to fund a drug addiction don’t think of anything beyond the next hit, and our jails don’t have the room or the resources to treat them, and the crimes are individually minor so they get released after short terms.
There is no cheap solution, and there certainly is no easy solution.
Joey 10:43 on 2024-06-10 Permalink
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? Too bad we cut cut cut our over the last few decades such that we now need many ounces of prevention as well as even more pounds of cure. Obviously Montreal/Quebec is not unique, but there doesn’t seem to be much help on the way…
MarcG 11:14 on 2024-06-10 Permalink
Some men just like to put the pedal down and wonder if it’s their time to burn.
MarcG 11:21 on 2024-06-10 Permalink
(In response to Joey’s comment about our society having no foresight or ability to care in case that’s not clear)
Tim S. 11:24 on 2024-06-10 Permalink
MarcG: I think it’s important to remember that those men have names. Chretien. Martin. Bouchard. Manning, among others.