The Editor:
I'm going to ask an unpopular question and I don't mean any disrespect: If we can cancel sporting activities in order to host a vaccine clinic, why can't we do the same when it comes to housing the homeless in the midst of a pandemic?
The city of Victoria converted their sporting arena into a temporary homeless shelter for the second year in a row with cots and privacy dividers; here in the Tri-Cities, it took a severe weather alert and the threat of people freezing to death before we opened an Emergency Weather Response shelter — 14 months into the pandemic. Even then the shelter space was provided by a local church and the shelter was overseen by the Phoenix Society.
I just can't wrap my head around that.
I'm all for using our civic spaces to help facilitate administering vaccines, but I don't understand why we continue to leave people outside. Coquitlam alone cannot bear the responsibility of providing shelter for the Tri-Cities homeless population.
It is time for each municipality to step up and do its part. Only then can we call ourselves truly inclusive communities.
Rob Bottos, Coquitlam
