A post dated January 12 on social network Nextdoor’s Point Roberts platform concerning “an influx of homeless [people] since the ferry started” unleashed a flood of comments, 57 of them, to be exact, over the next 12 days.
Reports of transient people squatting in vacant cottages and thefts of packages were followed by calls to restrict passage on the ferry to bona fide residents of Point Roberts.
“Well, since this is true, then people need to have a Point Roberts address or proof they are coming to visit someone to ride the ferry here … Maybe, if you don’t have a Point Roberts address then charge a fee large enough so the homeless cannot come here. Not being mean but really there is nothing here to support the homeless,” said one commenter.
When another person wrote that Point Roberts should not be exempt from dealing with the homeless problem, the first replied, “If I see a homeless person here, I will send them your way and you can start a program for them.”
Another wrote, “At the taxpayers meeting last night, it was reported that the sheriff returned 5 squatting/living rough persons to Bellingham.” However, according to Deb Slater of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, none of this is true. In a response to a query from the All Point Bulletin, she wrote, “Whatcom County Sheriff’s Deputies have no involvement or knowledge of this activity.”
Fake news travels fast …
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