To the Editor,
We are neighbours of the Port Alberni Shelter. It’s a valuable resource for people in need and for years it was a good neighbour. However, over the past few years it has turned into a nightmare.
There are constantly people hanging about on the sidewalk smoking and shouting expletives to each other as well as friends and people driving past.
We could go on and on about the people in our alley smoking crack, the prostitution, the fights, the police and ambulances.
Throughout the day people are going to and from the vacant lot across the street from the shelter and in full view of the shelter, our local RCMP detachment and an elementary school, they buy, sell and consume drugs.
These aren’t new people in crisis every few weeks; they are the same people month after month.
There is getting to be an ever larger collection of “extra” pets around the shelter. At one point when we objected to one of the shelter’s long-term clients housing his endlessly barking dog in a car out front of our house, we were threatened and verbally harangued.
When we have complained to the staff or the police, we have been given empty promises followed by no changes.
Now the same person who has never resolved an issue with us, his neighbours, or apologized for his clients’ behaviour towards us, their neighbours, wants our vote for city council. Sorry, but no vote.
R.W. Sjoholm
and J.D. Ross,
Port Alberni