Dear Editor:
My name is Misty Rafferty. I am a tenant in a building called Cliff Block, run by Lookout Emergency Aid Society.
The building houses mentally ill people. People who just can't make it on their own. The building is staffed 24 hours a day by tenant support workers, giving out medication, being an ear when someone is having a rough go and attending to emergencies. I have needed them a few times myself. We have an art program and a drum session on the weekend. We have a tenant-run meal program. There are three buildings like the one I live at in New Westminster. There are others located in Vancouver and North Vancouver also.
There is an outreach program that is run out of the building. I don't know a lot about outreach, but I know there are going to be a lot of pissed off homeless people that are clients.
Which gets me to the point of my letter. Yesterday, all the tenants were asked to come for a meeting. In this meeting, I found out Fraser Health cut the funding to Lookout on the grounds that Lookout refused to give confidential information about the tenants of Lookout to Fraser Health.
I believe this is very wrong morally of them, especially being a tenant myself, and so close to election time, too.
So what happens now? Now we see the wave. I also learned in this meeting that due to funding being cut, the building I live in is now going from four tenant support workers down to three. The building manager is no longer going to be in the building and outreach is being cut too. This affects so many people. And that's just one site. I am not sure what is happening at different locations but I'm sure it's much of the same.
This is not good for the tenants. We rely on the tenant support workers at any given moment and without the workers being able to be here 24 hours a day there could be a lot of problems. Just think of someone having a panic attack and needing an Ativan to calm them down, but there is no staff on to give it to them. This would cause more anxiety and maybe an injury or a trip to the psych ward. (*Puts hand up. I have been there.)
I don't know how to conclude this letter or the criteria needed for you to put this to print or get the story told. I'm mad and upset and so are the rest of the tenants and staff. It's a shame.
Misty Rafferty, New Westminster
