A Red Deer councillor is so frustrated at the city’s homeless population she’s willing to buy them bus tickets to Calgary and Edmonton to kick them out of town..And Coun. Vesna Higham said addicts should be kept in a fenced enclosure after visiting a downtown safe injection site, right across the street from a Safe Harbour homeless shelter..“I’m so frustrated I’m at the point where I’d be willing to consider buying a bus ticket to Calgary or Edmonton for people in our community who for whatever reason won’t or cannot abide by such simple and basic expectations,” Higham said in an interview with the Western Standard..She described the area surrounding the shelter and injection site as strewn with garbage and a hotbed of crime..“Why can’t they be fenced in while they are high,” asked Higham, adding the shelter could go a long way to “being a good neighbour” by imposing an 8 p.m. curfew on its residents..She said the shelter usually is home to 60-80 homeless people a night..“After using the site they spill out into the surrounding neighbourhoods. We have been sent videos where they are just out of their mind, a serious threat,” Higham said..She said a residential area is only a block away, as are recreation trails..“There a lot of conflict. Businesses have been complaining for years. Recently there was a crime spree that saw five or six businesses having their windows smashed in,” she said..“People are terrorized on a daily basis. People are coming and going out of the shelter at all hours of the night … for what you assume is criminal activity. They are criminal predators.”.Higham said despite the shelter being warned several months ago, they have seen no change in behaviour or the amount of garbage..“It’s never been as bad as it has over the last three-five years. The status quo can not continue,” she said..The city granted the shelter a four-month extension, and Higham hopes to see steps taken to clean up its act..And the province – which Higham said contributed to the problem for decades, with chronic under funding for things like infrastructure – has shelled out $5 million for a drug treatment centre scheduled to open in spring 2022..She said the homeless situation has caused businesses and families to flee the downtown core and move to the suburbs..“People will say you can’t impose expectations on them because they are traumatized. I realize they are a slave to their addiction, but they seem capable of doing simple things,” said Higham..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
A Red Deer councillor is so frustrated at the city’s homeless population she’s willing to buy them bus tickets to Calgary and Edmonton to kick them out of town..And Coun. Vesna Higham said addicts should be kept in a fenced enclosure after visiting a downtown safe injection site, right across the street from a Safe Harbour homeless shelter..“I’m so frustrated I’m at the point where I’d be willing to consider buying a bus ticket to Calgary or Edmonton for people in our community who for whatever reason won’t or cannot abide by such simple and basic expectations,” Higham said in an interview with the Western Standard..She described the area surrounding the shelter and injection site as strewn with garbage and a hotbed of crime..“Why can’t they be fenced in while they are high,” asked Higham, adding the shelter could go a long way to “being a good neighbour” by imposing an 8 p.m. curfew on its residents..She said the shelter usually is home to 60-80 homeless people a night..“After using the site they spill out into the surrounding neighbourhoods. We have been sent videos where they are just out of their mind, a serious threat,” Higham said..She said a residential area is only a block away, as are recreation trails..“There a lot of conflict. Businesses have been complaining for years. Recently there was a crime spree that saw five or six businesses having their windows smashed in,” she said..“People are terrorized on a daily basis. People are coming and going out of the shelter at all hours of the night … for what you assume is criminal activity. They are criminal predators.”.Higham said despite the shelter being warned several months ago, they have seen no change in behaviour or the amount of garbage..“It’s never been as bad as it has over the last three-five years. The status quo can not continue,” she said..The city granted the shelter a four-month extension, and Higham hopes to see steps taken to clean up its act..And the province – which Higham said contributed to the problem for decades, with chronic under funding for things like infrastructure – has shelled out $5 million for a drug treatment centre scheduled to open in spring 2022..She said the homeless situation has caused businesses and families to flee the downtown core and move to the suburbs..“People will say you can’t impose expectations on them because they are traumatized. I realize they are a slave to their addiction, but they seem capable of doing simple things,” said Higham..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
