Editor’s views informative

DEAR EDITOR:

Re: “Goodbye downtown Kelowna, we might not miss you,” Oct. 9.

I read, with fascination and amazement, David Trifunov’s Kelowna Courier editorial describing his experiences in downtown Kelowna. His description was grim, enlightening, uncomfortable and profoundly sad. It wasn’t a Kelowna I recognized.

However, I don’t spend much time in this area, and I am grateful Trifunov accepted the responsibility of telling us, his readers, what he was seeing and experiencing.

I’m also astounded by the vitriolic condemnation of him for doing so. This is a case of attacking the messenger because you don’t like his message. Why are we not directing our anger where it rightly belongs?

At the provincial government for closing mental-health facilities, promising community care and never delivering — and perennially underfunding those resources.

Or that same government which only funds ‘wet’ residential facilities, where residents continue to feed their addiction and create chaos in various Kelowna neighbourhoods, but refuse to fund ‘dry’ facilities that more readily and peacefully, become part of existing residential neighbourhoods.

Why aren’t we, as a community, speaking out against Kelowna’s existing homeless strategies where funds are funnelled through the Journey Home organization, removing them and the responsibility for them, away from city council to a third party who links and plans but doesn’t actually provide services to those in dire need.

Perhaps Kelowna is no different than many other cities our size. Every municipality is struggling to deal with an avalanche of social problems, and many of us live in areas where we are not, daily and directly, confronted by mental illness, socially abhorrent behavior, addiction and the chaos and mess they bring in their wake.

Trifunov described a Kelowna we don’t want to acknowledge, don’t want to deal with, and choose not to live or work amidst. There is great human tragedy unfolding in our downtown. The editor can well take care of himself and doesn’t need my support, but I thank him for describing what he was seeing with his readers. I suspect he knew well that it would create outrage, but I am grateful to him for describing a downtown I didn’t recognize and don’t personally know.

Our anger would be much better directed toward those who are ultimately responsible and press them to make the issues of our homeless, mentally ill and addicted a higher priority on their political agendas. We are in the midst of an election campaign. What better time?

Sharron J Simpson, Kelowna