To the Editor,
Re: ‘We can’t revisit this’, April 7.
I applaud Mayor John Ruttan and all the other folks who are for the low-barrier housing moving ahead.
I would like to address any concerns people may have about the mentally ill being in their neighborhood.
I am a senior who volunteers three times a week on the psychiatric ward at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. I have been doing that work for more than three years and have never felt concerned for my safety.
The truth is that the vast majority of people with mental illnesses are not threatening or dangerous. Rather, they are much more likely to be victims of crime rather than causing it.
It saddens me that so many people have stigmatized those people who have a mental illness as being bad or weak-willed or dangerous. That simply is not true.
People who are mentally ill are just like you and me. Mental illness can happen to anyone.
I hope the city councillors will educate themselves on the realities of mental illness and be true leaders in this community by permitting low-barrier housing to proceed as planned.
Tillie Bright
Nanaimo