Editor: It’s been a while since I have written to The Voice. But the comments from a recent letter to the editor, “Where would they go?” regarding those living in the tent city in Rotary Park led me to write in.
The writer thinks the homeless should stay there until there is affordable housing for them. Unfortunately, that would mean they would be there forever, as most would not find the money for housing.
That’s because the so-called “affordable,” it turns out, would still not be affordable.
It would be for those people who are working on low incomes who are finding it hard and trying to get by.
When I’m talking to a friend in Thunder Bay who tells me they have tent cities too, and there are mostly empty beds in their shelters, can a lot of them really be helped?
It seems it has become the way of life for a good many. It’s a cold, cold way to live in the winter.
Food and other things are at times free for them due to the generosity of many Chatham people who feel they are helping the situation.
But the homeless issue keeps growing each year.
I might be a pessimist, but I don’t see an end to it, unfortunately.
Ruth Draper
Chatham
