So this wonderful new building is being constructed in my neighbourhood

[DripDrop]

Construction begins on Surrey mental-health and substance-use treatment facility

Construction has begun on a new 60-bed mental-health and substance-use treatment facility in Surrey, with the beds expected to be available to patients by spring 2028.

vancouver.citynews.ca

Beginning construction on mental-health, substance-use treatment facility in Surrey - Indo-Canadian Voice

PEOPLE with complex mental-health, addiction and brain-injury needs will get the care they need as construction begins on the new mental-health and

voiceonline.com

Former John Volken Academy building in Surrey will house new involuntary care facility - Surrey Now-Leader

King George Boulevard site will house 60 involuntary care beds

surreynowleader.com

So, previously this building was a recovery center. The neighbourhood went to shit afterwards. I guess if you fucked up and did drugs or said something wrong, immediately out on the street you go. Every corner around here had mini-encampents since this building went up. The nearby ravines and green spaces turned into full-blown metal recycling encampments. Vehicle thefts and noisy shopping carts are the norm now. Swearing and screaming can be heard all night long

Since this centre closed it has been relatively back to normal around here...

Former Volken Academy clients describe conditions at facility ordered to close - Surrey Now-Leader

Former residents of JVA remember endless work and punishments including the silent treatment

surreynowleader.com

...with all the encampments now located 3 blocks away in front of (and across the street from) the other secluded recovery center which is located next door to a 55+ trailer park.

The fact the new building is "involuntary care" has me a little skeptical, since the Supreme Court has deemed them illegal:

Court finds B.C.'s involuntary mental health treatment scheme unconstitutional

The British Columbia Supreme Court has given the provincial government six months to reform laws that allow directors of mental health facilities to consent to psychiatric treatments for people who are involuntarily admitted for care.

vancouver.citynews.ca

(So they're gonna build them and house people in them anyway? What?)

Maybe now that they're "locked" up involuntarily, the neighbourhood might remain fairly the same. But if the courts say "no" and they release all the the residents simultaneously (like they did previously)... I don't even want to think about it.

 

[More Pajeets]

All ears for a city that prioritizes homeowners with cars and doesn't run social programs like looney bins and buses.

 

[brutana_dilewski]

noisy shopping carts are the norm now

^ these things are the calling card of the homeless. If you see one or more random shopping carts somewhere far away from the store, you know they are around somewhere

 

[Koba]

You can expect your property values to decline and for the homeless economy to sprawl around the region in a two-block radius. They also will walk to the nearby foodbanks creating historic urban trails

 

[Koba]

The BC ruling on involuntary care is actually a very big step forward, those places are completely nightmarish. It isn't the homeless drug addicts we are necessarily talking about, it's the old lady with Dementia they decide has an untreatable illness who starts getting fed pillz for the rest of her life by injection. She would stay there until she dies in the old system

 

[ovarieasy]

Watch out, those things burn down all the time. Darndest thing.

 

[CaptainTrouble]

I don't like the government locking people who they decide has a mental illness. The way you treat these people is you remove ALL public assistance that they have. No more tax-payer funded Narcan, no more ta-payer funded ambulance transports, no more tax-payer funded ER work done, no more tax-payer funded doctor visits, no more tax-payer funded drugs, no more tax-payer funded housing, no more tax-payer funded food, no more tax-payer funded anything for these people. Over time, they will reduce themselves. There's nothing wrong with voluntary either so if this sounds harsh to you then feel free to stand at the street corner, offer them you house to stay at, offer them your food, transport the passed out guy to the ER yourself and pay for the doctor and drugs yourself.

 

[Koba]

All we have to do is jail homeless people for mental disturbance of public drug use and then set up an alternative system to either keep them isolated from society, like a new leper island, or a reintegration pathway that is less forgiving and takes years to completely get out of. We can talk up the idea of letting people overdose as a necessary evil, but the optics are bad and empathy will ultimately lead us back to the cracked up safe use system unless we provide an answer

 

[CaptainTrouble]

I personally don't see an issue with homeless people or people shooting up drugs IF they aren't disturbing anyone else. It's like driving on a public road. Sure, some guys drive like asshole but ultimately, if they aren't causing accidents then it's not our problem. I actually think it's quite inhumane to not let homeless people camp in the woods. Slums should be accepted and promoted by our society but put to the outskirts of the cities. The biggest issue right now is that we put all these freebie-handout institutions in the middle of cities which then forces the poor/homeless to campout near these institutions. Get rid of the institutions such that homeless have no incentive of being in the cities and let them camp on the outskirts if they want to. Put up signs saying "do not feed the animals with pictures of homeless people" or they'll keep coming back and not learn how to hunt in nature. If they engage in theft then imprison them but only if they commit a crime. Our prisons need to be made 10x worse than now, big time. Canada pays far too much for each criminal. We pay something like $50k/year for a criminal. We should be spending about $5/year per criminal locked up.

 

[Koba]

@CaptainTrouble We just come from such different backgrounds. You're basically auth libertarian, I'm mild auth left. We just have to focus on what is going to actually solve the problem and be viable, it would be easy to have work camps for people who OD as an alternative to prison and put them to work funding their own rehabilitation program. People are terminally homeless are usually brain damaged, deeply addicted, and mentally ill. Treatment for brain damage is possible, reversing physical addiction is possible, and at the very least most mental illness can be treated. The sort of answer where we just ignore these people and that's the answer has a bad externality for society, and in some cases there are people who spiral into that lifestyle because of bad luck. Do we have to brutalize people, in my opinion? I don't think so. I think we just need an iron hand for deviant elements in society so the problem stops. Not the same thing as political dissidents, or the white guy who is experimenting with coke or whatever and is clearly a different use case. But anyone who deals with the homeless right now knows they are feral animals beyond normal treatment, and every one of them is someone's son or daughter. I don't think the callous attitude of letting them die would ever work

 

[CaptainTrouble]

@Koba Believe it or not I was raised a communist feminist leftist for the first 25 years of my life and only switched in the last decade.

it would be easy to have work camps for people who OD as an alternative to prison and put them to work funding their own rehabilitation program.

Terrible. It creates an incentive (and a government one at that) to increase crime in order to create more slaves. This is one of the worst ideas.

People are terminally homeless are usually brain damaged, deeply addicted, and mentally ill.

Tragic. Not our problem unless it becomes one or you wish to make it your own. There's also tons of homeless who choose to be for whatever reason.

Treatment for brain damage is possible, reversing physical addiction is possible, and at the very least most mental illness can be treated.

Agreed, which is why it's a noble cause to make this a voluntary passion of yours and people like you to pursue.

and every one of them is someone's son or daughter.

Then why aren't the parents working to solve the problem?

I don't think the callous attitude of letting them die would ever work

I'm not advocating letting them die. I'm advocating that their treatment comes at the hands of citizens not through the force of the government with guns to everyone's head.