Pubdate: Thu, 06 Feb 2003
Source: Monday Magazine (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Monday Publications
Contact:  http://mondaymag.com/monday/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1150
Author: Adrienne Mercer

DOWNTOWN CLEAN-UP PLAN WAITING FOR FUNDS

Until someone coughs up some cash for Victoria's new downtown health action 
plan, the joint project between the city and the Vancouver Island Health 
Authority (VIHA)--meant to help homeless, addicted and mentally ill people 
downtown--is just words on paper, punctuated by a few minor measures.

For now, it simply amounts to a few more cops on the streets, and six "new" 
outreach workers that the VIHA secured funding for in December.

"What we have to do is find the resources [to make the plan work]," says 
mayor Alan Lowe. "We are seeking funding right now."

The plan is in response to a group of downtown business owners, who showed 
up at the council's January 9 meeting to say they are losing business 
because the city is not working hard enough to keep drug users, traffickers 
and sex trade workers off the streets.

Last week, Lowe, VIHA chief operating officer Marilyn Rook, and Victoria 
police chief Paul Battershill announced 10 short and long-term commitments 
to improve health and social services and "clean up" the downtown area.

Within six months, city and health authority representatives want to 
establish full-time youth detox services and an adult "sobering" centre. 
They also want to improve the way psychiatric emergencies are dealt with at 
local hospitals, and train more volunteers to collect and dispose of used 
syringes.

Other "short term actions" include VIHA's six outreach workers, and the 
Victoria police department's new drug task force. Battershill says the task 
force will seek out drug traffickers in the downtown area, as well as in 
neighbourhoods like Fernwood, North Park and Burnside-Gorge. A maximum of 
five officers will be working at any given time.

"They're going out at random times during the week, random days," he says. 
For safety reasons, task force officers will work as a group instead of 
splitting up to cover different areas.

Over the long term, Lowe says residents can expect to see capital planning 
for a new psychiatric emergency building, increased affordable housing for 
homeless people, and a new inner-city health coalition. The city and the 
health authority have also promised to review mental health and addictions 
services now available, including an investigation into whether a 
supervised safe injection site is appropriate for Victoria.

It's not clear how the city and the health authority plan to pay for these 
new support services, though Lowe says he plans to lobby for provincial and 
federal dollars. And while Rook says the health authority hopes to set up 
youth detox and adult sobering centres "as soon as possible," funding 
dollars need to be "reallocated" first.

"We'd certainly be talking a million dollars ballpark [for the sobering 
centre]," she said last week.

Wayne Poohachoff, a member of the North Park Neighbourhood Association 
board of directors, has mixed feelings about the action plan. "I'd hoped to 
hear the mayor speak more about working with community associations," he 
says. "I've been meeting with VIHA for about a year, but some noise from 
downtown merchants seems to get the attention of the city [more quickly]."

Poohachoff likes VIHA's commitment to helping mentally ill and addicted 
people improve their situations, and hopes to see all levels of 
government--including the city--contribute money to the various components 
of the plan.

"Government cuts are developing a have and have-not society," he says. "You 
see it downtown--addiction's a big part of it, poverty's a big part of it. 
And frankly speaking, it's only going to get worse . . . most people know 
someone who has been out on the street, or has died of an addiction. But we 
don't seem to bring that to the forefront."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens