Making room for compassion

Re: “Homeless take centre stage,” by Victor Tanti, Letters, Jan. 25. Kudos to Victor Tanti of Homeward Trust Edmonton for acknowledging the Citadel Theatre’s role in the quest for social housing for our community’s most vulnerable.

My community of Windsor Park, bordering the University of Alberta and Cross Cancer Institute, is debating whether to include Compassion Houses for patients, and their caregiving family members, coming here from all over North America for cancer treatment, open heart surgery and other procedures.

Some residents wish to maintain the exclusivity of larger single-family dwellings only, even though the everincreasing number of rental homes are crammed with university students and other unrelated individuals.

One Compassion House has just received zoning approval to continue its valuable work of more than 14 years, while the other is seeking approval, having operated successfully for about four years.

Both are ideally situated for patients and their families. Besides, they’re ideal community members. Let’s support these Compassion Houses.