Maple Ridge Mayor Mike Morden is being criticized for saying the city鈥檚 homeless are 鈥渞aping and pillaging鈥� in the city.

The comments were made in a 35-minute YouTube video posted Friday.

鈥淚 see us becoming, for some reason, a hot spot in the Lower Mainland for people coming here to carry on doing drugs and basically raping and pillaging all of our community and our businesses and that鈥檚 got to stop,鈥� Morden can be seen saying in an interview with Susan Einarsson, president of Kingman Communications.

Since the video was published, Morden has been under fire for his comments. While he did not apologize for his comments, Morden said Wednesday that they were 鈥渁n expression of frustration and probably weren鈥檛 appropriate.鈥�

However, he added, his comments were a reflection of the frustration felt by citizens and businesses about prolific theft he feels is being driven by drug addiction.

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鈥淗ousing doesn鈥檛 solve addiction,鈥� said Morden.

Coun. Kiersten Duncan said Morden is being rightly criticized in social media.

鈥淗is comments were grossly inappropriate, and it was disappointing to hear the mayor speak that way,鈥� she added. 鈥淚t makes the city look terrible. It reflects poorly on all of council.鈥�

She said the mayor should apologize, and strive to 鈥渃arry himself better in the future.鈥�

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The YouTube video addresses what Morden calls a 鈥渂attle of the wills鈥� between the provincial government and the city over homeless issues.

The provincial government has announced it will place on property it owns at 11748 Burnett St.

Morden took part in a against the project on March 30. Another rally is planned for Sunday.

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