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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: City’s homeless people need housing options

I work close to downtown and have definitely seen an increase in people sleeping in doorways
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Letters to the editor should be no longer than 250 words and will be edited. Include your address (it won’t be published). E-mail editor@nanaimobulletin.com.

To the editor,

Re: Homelessness spreads onto school grounds, Letters, Feb. 27.

It saddened me to read this article. I work close to downtown and have definitely seen an increase in transients and people sleeping in doorways, inside instant teller machine locations, on park benches and underneath the Pearson Bridge. I can’t understand why the city won’t utilize empty buildings, even on a temporary basis, to house some of the homeless? Doesn’t it make sense to use our resources to manage one, two or even three locations rather than stretching them to the max trying to cover multiple locations around the city?

The downtown area is where the 7-10 Club is, the Salvation Army’s New Hope Centre, with police, outreach clinic, needle exchange, fire and ambulance services nearby. Better to house people inside buildings (and close to the services they need), rather than have them spread all over the streets, in doorways, parks and schools. How can we make this happen? The things we’re doing now are not working.

Liz van Wieringen, Nanaimo


The views and opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author and do not reflect the views of Black Press or the Nanaimo News Bulletin. If you have a different view, we encourage you to write to us or contribute to the discussion below.