Camping reflects real issue

I was somewhat amused at the comments by retiring councillor Dan McWilliams in regards to the behaviour of folks camping at Victoria Park. "They're sleeping in there, urinating in there – even making love in there," Coun. Dan McWilliams said during a police services board meeting on Wednesday.

Camping seems to be the solution for the lack of housing for many not only in Peterborough. In Nanaimo, a city about the same size as Peterborough located on the West Coast on Vancouver Island, hundreds of folks have chosen camping as opposed to more highly regarded forms of accommodation, ie: property ownership or renting. There are numerous reasons for this, some which may be a general non acceptance of the more traditional forms of accommodation, some enjoy a nomadic lifestyle and abhor our tight economic reality, some just like camping out, some like the freedom that camping out provides, some are just plain poor and it is all they can figure out to do. A friend of mine who lives in Nanaimo tells me that the city has brought in Outhouses and running water for the campers to use, I asked if there was power/hydro line for folks to plug in their phones, toasters etc and he replied that he did not think there was, he paused and continued by saying the word “yet.”

Lets face it, for some reason, poverty is in the forefront, more people are coming to Peterborough for our services, mental health programs, apres-prison release programs, to get away from the bigger cities, hospital and medical care and for the great food at the One Roof Diner and limited accommodation at The Warming Room. Those last two facilities were hard fought for and they seem to be very successful which is good. However their success means an influx of people and for many of that influx there is no affordable housing. One would think that a city of this size, with a very educated population, would be able to wade into this issue of homelessness and come up with solutions, not band aids, solutions. Would some of the other councillors who are not retiring wade in on this issue vocally in the media, give us some idea where they think we can improve our seeming lack of affordable space for folks to rent. I've said it before and I will say it again, Are any of the YLofts or the St. Joseph’s sites designated low-income? Why do we cater to the rich and shun the poor? Times are changing — are we able to change with them. Go to Discontent City Nanaimo to view their camping. Charlie Gregory, Morrow Street