As a citizen reading “Vancouver City Council frustrated with Navigation Center leaders” (July 15, The Columbian), I felt the city council needed to offer more support and less criticism. If the Navigation Center is serving almost 10 times the people it expected to serve, it needs financial help from the city to provide more staff. The last thing that is needed is to shut it down.
The name “Navigation Center” may be misleading. Its primary purpose is to provide a day center for people who are homeless. It provides them a safe place to get off the streets, access to showers, restrooms, laundry, and help with finding shelter and jobs. The center needs to be evaluated on its basic purpose first, as a safe place to get off the streets and access basic services. I think the city council may be evaluating it on higher standards than they should, on whether it can find people homes and jobs. These are auxiliary services to its main purpose as a day center.
Certainly the Navigation Center should be evaluated, but its staff should be supported, too. The Navigation Center is not a cure-all for homelessness. The city can’t just sweep the problem under the rug.
