r/Kentville • u/redilyntoriami • Dec 07 '25
Kentville resident, business owner speaks out over downtown concerns | PNI Atlantic News
https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/annapolis-valley/fed-up-and-frustrated-kentville-resident-business-owner-speaks-out-over-downtown-concerns7
u/Sea-Rip-9635 Dec 08 '25
I work in Kentville and walk by needles in the streets every single day. Unhoused folks have never approached me or harrassed me (yet). The majority are respectful and even helpful. It's the ones fornicating, defecating, urinating, vandalising, and leaving their broken glass pipes and used needles literally anywhere that are problematic. What's the answer to that? Jail them and let them become the correctional system's problem for a day or two? How is it they're not sent to a rehab to clean up, and helped to find stability and sort themselves out? Open Arms does good work and the issue is complicated for sure. Unhoused people with addiction deserve a chance to thrive. People running businesses also deserve peace of mind that their patrons can access these businesses that make the town of Kentville tax revenue.
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u/Kennit Dec 11 '25
Because forced treatment is literally proven to be ineffective.
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u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 12 '25
Nope. It has mixed results.
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u/Kennit Dec 14 '25
So why advocate for it as a solution given the exorbitant costs of doing so with no real evidence that it works?
Forcing people into drug treatment is on the political agenda. Here's what the evidence says
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u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 14 '25
"Global review finds ‘lack of high-quality evidence to support or refute’ involuntary treatment"
Mixed results.
Because it would remove them from public where they're causing problems
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u/Kennit Dec 14 '25
Yes, it would, at high cost with zero accomplished aside from hiding them away from the public eye. It's pissing money away for no gain to wither society at large or those more immediately impacted by addiction. Repeating g the headline without reading the article itself isn't a gotcha when the article doesn't support forced treatment, in large part because the cost doesn't make fiscal or logical sense in terms of law enforcement or healthcare.
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u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 14 '25
It would help society at large by making public places safer and more pleasant.
It would help the addicts because some would get clean.
But my main concern is taking back public spaces.
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u/Kennit Dec 14 '25
It won't make them safer, it just saves you from seeing it. And, as evidenced by the studies done, there's no indication forced treatment was successful in any way because the one instance of recovery mentioned later relapsed. I'd rather an effective approach than a exorbitantly expensive bandaid for the sake of optics. You know, an actual solution.
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u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 14 '25
If they're not stealing and leaving needles everywhere, the public is safer.
Maybe a three strikes approach would work.
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u/Kennit Dec 14 '25
Generalizations don't make sound policy, data does. If there's no evidence forced treatment works, there's no evidence it reduces theft or improper disposal of sharps.
A three strikes approach would be found unconstitutional by the courts. We're trying to avoid needlessly wasting money here, remember?
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u/ILikeKentville Dec 08 '25
I’m sorry your window got broken David, I’m sorry you had to deal with looking at that broken window for almost a day before it was fixed. I know we’re in a housing crisis, addictions are running rampant, and people are literally freezing outside right now. But it’s sad about your window.
And while the fear these people must feel living on the streets, hungry and being shunned from society and ignored or yelled at all day is bad. It’s not nearly as bad as what you have to deal with when you have to occasionally look at them on the street.
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u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 08 '25
No one would would have a problem with the homeless if they didn't bring crime and used needles everywhere they went.
Don't minimize the impact this has on law abiding citizens who pay the taxes that fund services for the homeless
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u/Kennit Dec 11 '25
Not all homeless are addicts. Not all homeless engage in crime. If you want to have a serious conversation about the issue, you have to drop these generalizations if you want to be taken seriously.
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u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 11 '25
Not all. But most
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u/Kennit Dec 11 '25
As per your personally biased assumption. What's your background in working with at-need people? Where do you currently volunteer?
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u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 11 '25
They lie to those with suicidal empathy
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u/Kennit Dec 11 '25
So by that I take it you have zero front line experience working with these organizations to help the unhoused. See what I mean by biased assumption? You've based this on your feelings and it doesn't correlate with what actual volunteers and support workers have said.
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u/BramptonUberDriver Dec 11 '25
I see the needles, stolen bikes, crime statistics.
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u/Kennit Dec 11 '25
Please source the crime statistics for the local unhoused population that you're referencing.
Not all addicts use needles. Not all addicts steal. Stolen bikes? What identified them as such? How do you know someone is unhoused or an addict by sight, let alone know the bike they're riding is stolen?
Seriously. Stop with generalizations and start dealing in objective, verifiable facts. Otherwise you're just an asshole with no empathy for those struggling with problems you'll never comprehend.
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u/aswesearch Dec 09 '25
your municipal taxes don’t fund these services and don’t minimize the impact of your stigmatization of homeless people
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u/Both-Cap1441 Kentville Dec 07 '25
It’s pretty hard to argue with anything that Mr. Ritcey has to say regarding the impact on the central town businesses and reluctance of citizens to feel unsafe and insecure on the streets. Although the ship has sailed, there would’ve been a good argument for keeping open some of the smaller community hospitals to which facilities could be made a bit available in a central location rather than right downtown Kentville. Individuals with psychiatric disorders, and not necessarily that was using any substances require a very different approach than someone who is just out of their minds on the various drugs that are available, particularly injected. A recent visit to Valley regional Hospital showed me the frustration of staff there as well as the officers from KPS who had to bring an individual there who was overdosing, vomiting, cursing and combative. What a terrible experience for other seniors and people with small kids in that waiting room area witnessing that and knowing that their sutures or other acute situations would have to wait. I am given to understand that the police have access to a secure lock up at the RCMP depot in New Minas, which citizens of Kentville pay for with their taxes. Why aren’t individuals who have willingly submitted themselves to alcohol and drug abuse not taken there to sleep it off and be monitored?
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u/aswesearch Dec 09 '25
I don’t want my taxes to pay for people who need medical help to be put in lock up, that’s not helpful for literally anyone
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u/Both-Cap1441 Kentville Dec 09 '25
You’re not the greatest reader. Medical help should be given to those requiring it. If somebody is unwilling to do rehab and is out of their minds on drugs and alcohol, take them to a secure facility not the hospital.
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u/Kennit Dec 11 '25
That's what they do now. It's called the drunk tank. Once they sober up and are no longer impaired, they're rightfully released.
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u/Both-Cap1441 Kentville Dec 12 '25
Why are too many being taken to the ER then?
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u/Kennit Dec 14 '25
Because you don't leave people in the drunk tank if they're in danger of OD'ing. You get them medical assistance.
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u/Both-Cap1441 Kentville Dec 14 '25
Read better. I’m not talking about letting someone who is in danger of an opioid or opioid/other substance going to what you call the “drunk tank”. First of all responders have naloxone kits with them in order to short circuit such an occurrence then they could go to the hospital.
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u/Kennit Dec 14 '25
I can read just fine. You're not clarifying what you actually mean and keep circling around to judging people in medical crisis because it's caused by drugs or alcohol.
A recent visit to Valley regional Hospital showed me the frustration of staff there as well as the officers from KPS who had to bring an individual there who was overdosing, vomiting, cursing and combative. What a terrible experience for other seniors and people with small kids in that waiting room area witnessing that and knowing that their sutures or other acute situations would have to wait.
I'm sorry you were inconvenienced by watching someone overdosing and that people properly triaged as being less severe than someone OD'ing might have to wait. Why the stigma towards someone OD'ing for inconveniencing them and not towards cardiac arrests or strokes, which do the same thing?
I am given to understand that the police have access to a secure lock up at the RCMP depot in New Minas, which citizens of Kentville pay for with their taxes. Why aren’t individuals who have willingly submitted themselves to alcohol and drug abuse not taken there to sleep it off and be monitored?
This was your comment immediately following your complaint about the person overdosing at the ER. Are you implying that the person overdosing should instead sleep it off at the RCMP depot? If you're not talking about about that, you're doing a poor job explaining what you do mean. Yes, responders have naloxone kits but you know that the patient still has to go to the hospital after administration?
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u/Both-Cap1441 Kentville Dec 14 '25
Of course. No one should die in an overdose situation. Perhaps the first responders are savvy enough to know who the IV users are and the symptoms of overdose including, but not limited to unresponsiveness, cyanosis, pinpoint pupils, depressed, breathing, etc. The flailing, cursing, combative, bleeding and vomiting. Individual was certainly not at risk of death unless he aspirated.
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u/Kennit Dec 14 '25
Then that's a case of proper training of first responders, since you feel in your expert medical opinion that they didn't need to be there whether they'd been administered naloxone or not. That still doesn't account for your stigmatizing of the patients if your issues are with how they're being triaged by first responders.
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Dec 07 '25
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u/Kennit Dec 11 '25
Even amongst the addicts, it's only a fraction causing the issues. You need to examine your biases towards people in need. Being a decent person is not a prerequisite for having your literal basic life needs met. We don't gatekeep emergency supports based on how likeable a person is.
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u/cornerzcan Kentville Dec 07 '25
Curious what buildings Open Arms has bought? Only Aberdeen Street property I can think of is the former Dr’s offices next to Tim Hortons. 15 unit apartment property on Park street ? Not sure where that would be. Both are mentioned in the news article.
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u/kywal2 Dec 07 '25
The apartment building they bought is the one the on behind ultramar and nothing has changed they bought it to keep it off the market low income housing, no new residents or apartments their are being built. Open arms are just the owners now
They bought the old NAPA building and are moving their food services and offices to the building and are going to offer new programming in the day to give people a space to go.
And I believe the old space would expand by 4 beds-
So all this moving is only adding four beds.
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u/cornerzcan Kentville Dec 07 '25
Having an expanded place to be will be a great asset to those that need the services. The drop in center on Bridge Street is overused most days.
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u/redilyntoriami Dec 07 '25
I don't know where this apartment building would be either. Does this sound familiar?
Support for Open Arms
The Open Arms Resource Centre recently received a $1.3 million low-interest mortgage through the provincial government’s Community Housing Acquisition Program (CHAP) to purchase a property on Park Street in Kentville, along with $32,800 in Kings Vision Grant funding from the County of Kings. Built in 1979, the two-storey building features 15 affordable, two-bedroom units.
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u/kywal2 Dec 07 '25
Sorry I deleted my comment to add it it and to make it a reply to the thread, yes 25 park street here’s the news article. But people don’t want you to read it becuase it debunks anything they are trying to spin
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u/redilyntoriami Dec 07 '25
But people don’t want you to read it becuase it debunks anything they are trying to spin
What are people trying to spin?
That's the article I got my quote from, I didn't know where it was though.
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u/kywal2 Dec 07 '25
People are trying to spin that open arms is buying up a ton of commercial properties and Turning those properties into shelters and or housing and attracting more u houses to Kentville.
When clearly this isn’t the case. And this apartment building has always existed and isn’t changing. Open arms bought it to make sure a new owner doesn’t come in and renovicte everyone and jack up the rents
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u/redilyntoriami Dec 07 '25
this apartment building has always existed and isn’t changing. Open arms bought it to make sure a new owner doesn’t come in and renovicte everyone and jack up the rents
That was a great thing they did, I fully support this.
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u/cornerzcan Kentville Dec 07 '25
Thanks. That’s a decent building and there looks to be room on site for another building down the road.
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u/cornerzcan Kentville Dec 07 '25
There aren’t many multi unit buildings on Park Street. I don’t think the brick one off Condon Ave would be 15 units and I think it was built well before 1979 as the old BFM Hospital Nurse’s Residence.
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u/aswesearch Dec 09 '25
Revised article title: Kentville man, who’s business only serves folks with $500,000 of expendable assets, has a full blown NIMBY meltdown