This week’s revelation that someone at Vancouver’s Union Gospel Mission approved sending a van with unhoused people to drop off in downtown Chilliwack is disturbing for many reasons.
But is it actually a revelation? It felt like that for us at The Progress because while there have been rumours, especially since the 2010 Olympics, that some public agencies physically brought homeless people to Chilliwack or paid their way, everyone in official positions said it was a myth.
Last Saturday, Mayor Ken Popove was sent a grainy video showing a Union Gospel Mission (UGM) cargo van dropping off two individuals around the corner from Ruth & Naomi’s Mission (RAN).
READ MORE: Union Gospel Mission van caught on video dropping off unhoused people in Chilliwack
The mayor insists this was an example of the longstanding rumours being true.
“Dropping off folks in our community just exacerbates the problem for our service providers,” he said this week.
UGM, for its part, insisted they were just bringing an unhoused individual (or two) to Chilliwack to meet a landlord. That didn’t work out so he (or they) stayed at RAN.
All of this is a little muddy and a lot fishy.
This also isn’t the first time the mayor raised an issue like this. In 2019, both Popove and MLA John Martin addressed the concern that Fraser Health had discharged at least two patients from Surrey Memorial Hospital and paid for taxis to Chilliwack homeless shelters.
Putting all that aside, remember that no matter their socio-economic or housing status, people aren’t chattel to be moved around. These people have free will to come and go as they please.
Did they want to come to Chilliwack and UGM did them a favour? Maybe.
Were they encouraged to leave another community and given a ride to come here to help alleviate the homeless problem in the Downtown Eastside? That would be speculation.
What’s of the utmost importance is that everyone, and especially the most vulnerable among us, are treated with dignity and respect.
– Black Press Media
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