Esther Short Park and surrounding neighborhoods will never address their crime problem until Share House, Vancouver Housing Authority, veteran services, food banks and churches stop concentrating their services. Esther Short is a magnet for transients.
Vancouver is a destination. There are a multitude of services concentrated within a few blocks: seven-day-a-week food banks, youth day shelter, housing, washing machines, showers, clothing, local, state and federal social services, veterans services, health care, respite care following hospitalization, plus three good meals a day. All for free.
The VHA and Council for the Homeless are proposing taking this continuum of care one step further with Lincoln Place, a shelter for 30 chronically homeless and mentally ill, some with secondary illnesses such as tuberculosis, diabetes and heart disease. They can continue their addictions as they live in government housing. Lincoln Place will be across the street from Share House, close to the free social services the neighborhood has to offer. These social service providers have created the perfect neighborhood for the homeless and transients.
It’s a crushing deal for Esther Short Park, the neighborhoods, Uptown Village, downtown, taxpayers and community investors. The solution is for the city and the social service providers to develop a plan of dispersal. Community is better served through integration than segregation.
