Why was Mustard Seed proposal not seen as beneficial?
By Letter to the Editor on May 6, 2021.
Editor: Regarding the letter by Mr. Mogdan about the City of Lethbridge rejecting the Mustard Seed proposal for a sober drop-in centre and soup kitchen on 13th Street and 1st Avenue South, I have the following questions:
Why was the Mustard Seed proposal not seen to benefit the public as a whole?
This marginalised population can be seen wandering the streets in that same area any day of the week. Often they are not sober.
The drop-in centre might be seen as a reason to get sober.
Did the Mustard Seed ask for any money from the City of Lethbridge?
I appreciate that Mr. Mogdan shared his understanding of the development approvals process, which he said is “under our land use bylaw” and “worked as it is supposed to work.” Therefore, can I assume that the location was an issue for the councillors?
The City of Lethbridge will adhere to its bylaws. Sometimes those bylaws don’t serve the community well, and they should be changed.
It is essential that all the stakeholders make the time for conversations prior to a decisive council meeting. Then there may be some positive outcomes for our city. Finally, I want to thank Mayor Spearman for recognizing that Lethbridge needs services for the marginalised population.
I appreciate his leadership.
Shirley Almas
Lethbridge
-1
Spin-it three ways to Sunday Shirley! On the contrary the rejection of this proposal was the RIGHT decision!
Like was said many times. We have a problem when the working man s taxed into poverty to support a man who will not work.
The Mustard Seed would be beneficial. In fact, you could convince me that the SCS was also beneficial. What was a disaster and devastating to the community was the implementation of the SCS. Now nobody will trust that the MS won’t be the same thing.
Majority that wanted Mustard Seed to set up in Lethbridge were the drug addicts, homeless and indigenous because it would be one more place for them to hang out and get freebies. Mustard Seed offers little more than a revolving door service enabling users to stay stuck. They provide no stats as to their success rate because they don’t keep track. What we do know is that the tax dollars this big business plugs into allows them to buy a lot of real estate at public expense. Their so called service is disruptive to the residents and businesses as the clientele they cater to are the ones out in the community we can’t trust for good reason. This sordid side of society lives off the hard work of others and for some reason wherever they go they leave a trail of garbage and bad vibe. Most migrate into our city from the near by reservations yet the Blood Reserve does next to nothing to address ‘their’ problem; rather they unload it on us. Residents are fed up. Lawyer Stephen Mogdan who is running for may will do nothing to address the problem; his letter was filled with fluff and rhetoric.
This is a very inaccurate statement.
Mustard Seed was a “this is a good place because its for sale” opportunist. Council for Lethbridge is a “hope someone proposes something” council.
Between those two, you have no strategic planning and you have companies like Mustard Seed more than willing to take advantage of the lack of planning in this city.
The Author of this letter makes a number of presumptions but the greatest presumption is a scattered approach “might help”. In actual fact the approaches Lethbridge has entertained or approved were a reinforcement of the East Side Vancouver Failures and its total lack of strategy.
DTES is an example of “meddling” and has been since its inception. The same occurred in Europe and the South of the US. All of these approaches were spearheaded by DoGooder Religious Groups who feel they get some sort of “free ticket to heaven” if they apply a helter skelter save me approach.
Their are numerous reasons why the DTES approach which does not work their, will not work here.
What has never been addressed by this city or supposed leaders is what will happen when or if you decide to provide lodgings for the 500 homeless visible drug addicts. What they do not understand is if you take 500 off the street, 500 will take their place hoping they will get the empty room from Joe dying of overdose.
One of Lethbridges biggest problems is they really do not know how to address the problem. They already know spending millions on drug addicts won’t fly with taxpayers already stretched to the limits. However, have you ever heard of any Councillor Proposing a community support of Blood applying for millions to expand their facilities? Would you be willing to spend millions of Lethbridge Taxpayer Money by offering it up to the Blood Reserve so they can expand their facilities and reduce our problem here?
So here is the simplistic analysis. Expand facilities here and you clear more addicts out of the Reserve because “we offer more”. Expand facilities on the Reserve and they solve their problem and ours.
For those saying but but they are DYING. Well, DTES has every service known to man, there numbers of deaths are skyrocketing. Our numbers rose by about 40% since the SCS closed. Not because the SCS closed but for the same reason DTES is skyrocketing, bad drugs everywhere because the border is closed.
If you say you found some use for SCS, I would suggest you do not know what happened there. Every month they saved “thousands of people” from imminent death. Yet every month after their closing, we had perhaps 3 deaths a month. So what happened to the hundreds of others that were saved? They stopped experimenting with deadly doses because death was back on the table. SCSs are enablers , thats it.
DTES has more addicts then it ever has in its history, at the sametime 10s of thousands have died while under their overly zealous assistance. DTES has progressively attracted more addicts from outlier communities because they offered more “First” and so they flocked there, not to be saved, but to be given freebees so they can spend all their money on drugs.
Turn Lethbridge into being “First”, and Moms Stop the Harm and numerous other organizations will be first to shuttle addicts to Lethbridge because of the increased services. It happened with the SCS, so you should expect numerous addicts from as far as Medicine Hat, Coutts, Pinscher Creek to Claresholm if this city decides to set up a Rehab Center, it will be FLOODED with everyone elses addicts, Guaranteed!
It happened in every city that dared to be First, to remind yourself, look at DTES Vancouver, they were first. If they approve small amounts of drugs allowed to be carried, I would dare say a lot of Alberta Addicts will jump a train….thats what happens when you want to be first and “cannot understand why Mustard Seed was not approved.
Why the Mustard Seed isn’t beneficial? Well from what I’ve read:
1) They’re opportunists after the almighty dollar. The salary for the top guy in this racket is around $300,000 a year. Just like ARCHES!
2) Everywhere the Mustard Seed sets up shop, turns into a cesspool of drugs and crime, and they don’t give it s–t about the businesses nearby, the residential homes, or the schools. Just like ARCHES!
3) They don’t post their success stories, because they have none. Just like ARCHES!
4) They claim to want to help the Lethbridge addicts, but all they really offer is enabling. They claim to want to help the Lethbridge addicts, yet they completely ignore the source of the problem. Just like ARCHES!
This “helping addicts and saving lives” is an absolute farce. Their only real concern is money.
what is astonishing are the salaries the heads of charitable orgs earn – perhaps averaging about $200k/yr. all off the back of donations, tax dollars etc. just like politicians!