Things I don't understand

Residents of the Beach(es) were opposed to having an Out of the Cold program in their neighbourhood. They quoted one of their major concerns as "safety."

I really cannot understand that. I simply cannot put myself in that headspace. I mean, I can see how you might feel less safe with homeless people around. I'm sure it makes me sound posh and over-privileged to say so, but I do grok the fact that walking down a street with zero homeless people feels safer than walking down a street with one homeless person, whether or not that feeling is justified.

But the thing is, for the homeless people this is a matter of survival. They are giving them shelter from the cold, in the winter, which has become an actual Canadian winter this week. They are letting them sleep in a building with walls and a roof and heat instead of sleeping on the street in -10 with a windchill of -20.

They aren't putting them in residents' homes or anything, they're putting them in a church that isn't otherwise occupied at that time. Residents can still go home and lock the doors. The only difference is that 12 homeless people will definitely be in their neighbourhood that night, which I'm assuming doesn't usually have a lot of visible homeless people or they wouldn't be complaining.

The Out of the Cold program rescues homeless people from a definite threat to their survival. The worst it presents to the residents is a small potential threat to their safety. Survival is below safety on Maslow's pyramid, and normally that includes in our dealings with others. It's like how you wouldn't talk to a strange man walking down the street, but you would give him the Heimlich manoeuvre or CPR if he needed it.

I can get not being 100% thrilled with this program in your neighbourhood (although there is one in my neighbourhood and it's no problem whatsoever). I can get sort of quietly deciding to yourself to avoid the church on those nights. I can even get quietly grumbling about it to your spouse if you feel the need. What I don't get is going out and complaining about it to the church and the organizers. Even if you don't like it, it's the sort of thing that you just suck it up and recognize that it's for the greater good, no? They're not in your home, they're just in your neighbourhood. Even if you do think homeless people are a threat to your property values, and you do think your property values are more important than not freezing to death, why would you want to announce this to the world?