It has to be discouraging for politicos tackling the problem of homelessness, to hear the blatant NIMBYism already clouding the issue.

The city is set to build two 50-unit supportive housing developments to help people living in wooded parks, downtown doorways and abandoned houses.

Those opposing these projects should ask themselves a few simple questions:

How bad can this problem get? Ten years ago the only person sleeping in Jubilee park might be a napping senior, worn out from an afternoon of lawn bowling in the sun. Now it is a rare senior who would venture into the park, as it is overrun by street people. There are approximately 260 homeless in Abbotsford. How soon could the number hit 500?

If not in the city’s proposed locations, then where? What neighbourhood will unanimously embrace former street people trying to get back on their feet?

Should we not consider those people who right now are the neighbours to those who will be the eventual residents of the city’s supportive housing? They live in houses on Pauline Street or Gladys Avenue, and run businesses downtown.

But at the present time their neighbours are desperate, in many cases addicted to drugs, and they are getting none of the propping up that the city’s new supportive housing will offer – basic shelter, drug counselling and lifestyle counselling.

If opponents think that these people will make poor neighbours, just consider that they are already living here.

Will Abbotsford get another opportunity to address this problem with such substantial help from the provincial government? The province will provide $22 million for the two 50-unit properties, and will fund the operating costs to the tune of $625,000 per year for 35 years.

It is unprecedented action from the province in addressing homelessness, and the city must accept it.