Thank you to the PQB News and Kevin Forsyth for reporting the growing number of homeless persons in Oceanside.
While other mid-Island communities have taken steps to alleviate the problem, Oceanside has refused to enable even a cold-weather shelter on a regular basis.
The provincial government has funds available for communities to provide extreme weather shelter or long term shelter beds but it seems our elected officials are unwilling to accept any offers. Now they have decided not to occupy a seat with the Oceanside Task Force on Homelessness. The 2023 count showed 103 people experiencing homelessness with a growing number of seniors unable to afford safe shelter.
Those numbers are generally viewed as being far below reality so we can only imagine how many people are experiencing homelessness in PQB today. Some months ago your paper polled the readers and more than 70 per cent supported a shelter in Oceanside. Now is the time to contact our elected officials in the hope that we can have something in place by next fall/winter.
It is the Canadian way.
Bob Goos
Parksville
