Housing office is well-deserved

Dear editor: Re: BC Housing criticized over glass office walls, Herald, A1, July 31

While I really like and respect you, Joe, reading your front-page critique of BC Housing really stuck in my craw. Errors stuck out like a sore thumb. So much so that I hit the road in search of facts. Also confirmed some I was sure I already knew.

The Tower section of the Winnipeg Street complex was built way back when, and was fondly referred to as The Retirement Centre. It was Penticton’s first ever seniors’ housing building. It borders on Winnipeg Street and Wade Ave.

Chestnut Place, the assisted living facility, is on the southwest extreme of the property and does not front on Winnipeg Street.

For decades, the mid-section of the complex provided space for floor curling, cards, billiards, dancing, meetings, lounge, dining, an office, clubs, as well as a site for annual flu shots and polling stations.

The main entrance to that area, though closed today, has a painted sign reading: PDSCL-Serving the Community Since 1958, 439 Winnipeg St.

It’s my belief that comparing apples with oranges is an extremely unfair approach in regards to cost analysis and is doing nothing to help Penticton grapple with housing needs for low-income families, persons with (dis)abilities, senior, and those with challenges, mental or physical.

We all recognize it will take a concerted effort on the part of community organizations willing to put their best foot forward to get things moving. BC Housing is one of those leaders and was long overdue for increased office space. I can’t stress enough how important BC Housing and its employees have been over the years, in fact decades.

That wee building on the corner of Brunswick Street and Nanaimo Avenue has been a Godsend to me, and I’m sure to many others. I was as pleased as punch when I saw their new “digs” on Winnipeg Street. “Spacious” came first to mind.

Regarding the decision to build with glass rather than less expensive studs and drywall, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Clearly BC Housing’s statement did explain the logic and I’d be remiss if I didn’t note it’s no surprise to many of us that things add up pretty quickly by the time we add in tax & more taxes, utilities and maintenance. Expenses for office furniture certainly are not unreasonable.

I’d just like to say that staff in Penticton’s BC Housing office have always, in my experience, been polite, respectful and helpful. Good on them for having a brand-spankin’ new look! They deserve it! Jean Mitchell Penticton this presence of the vicar of Christ.

Are not our best experiences connected with mystery? It was a rare display of religious joy and devotion.

The pope also addressed the anger of “salt-of-the-earth” Irish Catholics, really humiliated and “punch drunk” from hearing only of failures in church life — while they have known the rich culture of devotion and ritual that continues.

At the outdoor Mass, he set the tone by asking God’s forgiveness and healing for abuses committed by Catholic Church personnel. He acknowledged too the anger of those who are still pained by a church that was authoritarian, harsh, autocratic and self- protecting.

“Rather than bringing the liberating message of the love of God, it imposed a world of rules to such an extent that it lacked respect for the personal life of many and especially of women.” It was a sign of hope to see victims who have reconciled with the church serving Christ’s coming in the mass.

There was no arrogance in the heart of the pope. He carried the cross of a horrified soul, following his meeting with victims, before the lord at mass. The church has learned from history that the good of the church is more important than her goods.

The media also must do more to increase the peoples’ ability to engage in the art of redemptive suffering. They can stop being relentless in keeping the knife in open wounds to keep them from healing, leaving all the nerve endings exposed. The victims, too, can turn a new page. C.S. Lewis, an insightful Irishman, once remarked that “no one is more likely to be arrogant than a liberated slave.” He also said of his own life: “At a certain time I was beginning to compensate myself for my unhappiness but one day I realized that I had seen enough of a self-torturing temperament.”

The church must renew her faith to help the victims to follow St. Paul on his path to total healing: “I count everything as loss compared with the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3, 8-10 Fr. Henry Clarke

Kelowna let’s see who gets a piece of Lions Park?

And then there is Skaha Lake Park and the marina area, just how distorted will that get? Lynn Crassweller Penticton