We can do better with transients

Dear Editor:

I was very fortunate, growing up in a working class neighbourhood amidst many factories, to have access to the East End Boys Club, built with the generous donation of $400,000 ($4 million in today’s dollars) by JW McConnell, a Montreal philanthropist.

As described in the Montreal Gazette on the day of its official opening in December 1950, it was a magnificent building with hardwood and tile floors, sturdy, high quality furniture, a games room with three billiard tables, a library, shops upstairs with high quality tools and an excellent 25 yard swimming pool in the basement.

As the director of the Montreal Boys Association said that day, “It’s always a theory of ours that if you give lads, even so called tough lads, a decent environment they will live up to it”.

Fast forward to 1964/65 when I was a transient in Vancouver and I had access to the wonderful downtown YMCA, where I had a room for $17 per week, an amount I could earn with even the poorest wage. I enjoyed the facilities, including gym and pool as well as the canteen in the lobby. We were also motivated by the local members we associated with in all the activities.

Today, I see what we are attempting with the transient members of our city and it doesn’t approach what was available in the past. Several YMCAs (as well as YWCA) in Montreal, from 1873 onward, were classic architectural beauties located in the heart of the business section of Montreal.

In Kelowna in 2018, we are putting transient members of our city in containers in an industrial park on the outskirts of town. I know there are other locations as well, but we can do so much better.

As a young lady recently wrote, after about 10 years of homeless street life and now working productively, you cannot just leave transients to only associate together. Let’s give them a chance to interact socially and casually with other city residents in and around a facility used by all.

I propose that a YM-YWCA building be built on the old RCMP property, complete with separate residences for men and women, and charging nominal room rates, as well as a full complement of facilities including a gym, swimming pool, games room, etc to inspire and help integrate many low income workers and transients.

Don Henderson Kelowna