Image Credit: CFJC Today

By James Peters

Two and Out

PETERS: Access hub approach gives North Shore the best opportunity for success

Nov 8, 2024 | 12:30 PM

A PROPOSED ACCESS HUB SHELTER on the Kamloops North Shore is a positive for all involved.

The idea is this won’t be just a straight shelter — it will provide a whole suite of services that will hopefully help folks break the cycles that have resulted in them ending up in shelter.

It’s good for the neighbourhood — its residents and its businesses. It’s good for the city as a whole — and most importantly it’s good for the people it will serve.

The initial objections we have heard expressed have consisted of little more than pure NIMBY-ism.

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Neighbours are saying they like the idea in principle as long as they don’t have to see it or deal with it in action themselves.

They would prefer someone waves a magic wand and makes the social ill just disappear.

But this isn’t the realm of magic. Social service providers like those who will work at this access hub do not make their clients materialize out of thin air.

They do not 3-D print them or put them together in a lab like Frankenstein’s monster, either.

The people who require these services already live in our community.

If they will cause crime and public safety problems near this future facility, then chances are they are already doing that wherever they are spending time now.

Employing the access hub model actually has a better chance to connect these folks to the services they need to break the cycles of addiction and poverty that lead to criminal activity.

And if they don’t move in that direction, then this model has a better chance to concentrate security and policing personnel in one location.

We’ve agreed before — no one wants to be living on the street. No one wants to be addicted to substances. No one wants to be looked upon as a social ill rather than an individual with unique hopes and dreams.

We’ve also agreed that our current approach to homelessness and street issues ranges from a finger in the dam at best to woefully inadequate at worst.

Success here requires a multi-faceted approach. In theory, the access hub model provides that approach.

The proof will be in the pudding, but the neighbours of this new facility should give it a chance — if only because it’s not the same old, same old that has failed our community in the past.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.