Pubdate: Sat, 02 Sep 2006
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Paul Willcocks
Note: Paul Willcocks is a freelance journalist based in Victoria who 
writes on B.C. politics and public policy.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

TOURISM INDUSTRY FACES REALITY

News Of A Cancelled Conference Sparks Debate On What To Do About 
Panhandlers And Homeless In Charming Victoria

VICTORIA--There's trouble in paradise.

British Columbia's oh-so-quaint capital has built a $1 billion 
tourist industry on gardens, high tea, ocean views and a general 
feeling that this is a safe, easy place to visit. A little staid 
perhaps, but green and clean, almost a Disney version of a tiny 
perfect tourist city, except with whale-watching.

And, increasingly, with panhandlers, homeless people and addicts. 
They share the downtown sidewalks with tourists spending a few hours 
before they climb back on board their great white ships and head 
north to Alaska.

Mutterings about the street people have been around for years. But 
Victoria's business community and politicians -- especially the 
tourism industry -- have been torn. They wanted the problem fixed, 
but feared talking about it would mean bad publicity and lost 
business. Everyone tiptoed, literally and figuratively, around the 
people sleeping in doorways.

Until Roger Soane, manager of the iconic Fairmont Empress Hotel, 
decided things had become so bad that polite silence was no longer an 
option. He went public with the news that an organization from 
Washington, D.C., had cancelled a $200,000 conference after an 
advance visit to Victoria. And he shared their emailed concerns about the city.

"It was full of cheap souvenir shops and countless homeless children 
hounding us for money," the organizers complained. "It reminded me of 
the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver rather than a world-class city."

It's a ridiculous comparison. The Downtown Eastside is an astonishing 
human disaster zone; Victoria has nothing to compare. But the 
problems are real. Soane, a globe-trotting hotel management veteran 
on his second stop in Victoria, decided they needed to be raised.

"It could mean some short-term damage to my business," he said. "I'm 
looking at the long-term damage this could do to Victoria if nothing is done."

Soane's comments started a hot public debate about the people 
panhandling, shooting up and sleeping on the streets.

And then Dr. Anthony Barale took it to a whole other level. Barale is 
- -- or was until he quit in frustration -- the clinical director of 
psychiatric emergency services for the Vancouver Island Health 
Authority. He went public in a letter to the Victoria Times-Colonist, 
blaming the health authority for a large part of the street problems. 
Medical staff struggle to provide basic care for addicts and people 
with mental illnesses with "little support and the pitiful resources 
provided by VIHA," Barale said. The health system's response is 
inadequate, "even by so-called 'Third World' standards."

How bad are the street problems? By the standards of other big 
cities, not so serious. An afternoon walk from the Empress and the 
Inner Harbour to Victoria's tiny Chinatown will take a tourist past 
half a dozen panhandlers with makeshift signs, a couple of clumps of 
homeless people passing the time, and perhaps a bottle, in a popular 
park, and a rough-looking crowd outside the Streetlink shelter.

But Soanes notes Victoria isn't just another city. Tourism Victoria 
promotes it as "a friendly, safe haven for all visitors." The brand, 
as the marketers say, is in danger if visitors leave their boutique 
hotel and see an addict shooting up in the parking lot.

Anyway, says Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Bruce Carter, 
the problem is real. Ask the people who have to clean up vomit, urine 
and needles from their store doorways before they open for business 
in the morning.

Everybody agrees there's a problem, though some still wish it wasn't 
being talked about.

And most agree, at least broadly, on the solutions.

Victoria's only homeless count, done almost two years ago, found 
about 700 people without permanent shelter. The number is much higher today.

About half of them reported using drugs. Victoria, like many cities, 
is struggling with people addicted to alcohol, crystal meth, heroin 
and cocaine. The needle exchange handed out and took in more than one 
million syringes last year. About 40 per cent of the homeless said 
they had been diagnosed with mental illness. Many of them are former 
residents of large institutions that closed more than a decade ago 
and they have never received the promised community-based support.

'I'm looking at the long-term damage this could do to Victoria if 
nothing is done'

Roger Soane, hotel manager

The addicted and the mentally ill make up almost two-thirds of those 
living on the streets.

Then there are the people who simply can't afford a place to live in 
a city where the average selling price for homes in July was $514,000 
and the rental vacancy rate is under 1 per cent. B.C. welfare rates 
allow a single person $325 a month for housing. Beyond the worst 
dumps, there's nothing they can afford.

Governments and the health authority trot out statistics about all 
the money they have spent and the beds and housing they've created. 
It's a response that's deflected criticism in the past. This time, 
neither business groups nor social agencies are buying the answers.

The chamber of commerce's Carter says some of the street people 
simply need to be moved along somehow. But the mentally ill and 
addicted pose a different problem, and government is failing. "We're 
not doing this properly," he says. "If we were doing it properly they 
would not be there."

John Crean, housing manager for the Cool Aid Society, says 
homelessness has tripled over the past three years.

The society, which provides supported housing, emergency shelter and 
medical services to the street community, manages 240 housing units. 
Crean said he could fill another 750 units today if they were available.

"It's a very desperate situation," he says.

Without housing and support, people can't escape the streets. The 
situation is as bad or worse for the addicted. The health authority 
has seven detox beds available for the entire region; finding 
treatment is a huge struggle, and continued support largely 
unavailable. The Salvation Army plans to open a six-bed treatment 
centre for meth-addicted youth this fall. More than 150 parents have 
already called looking desperately for help for addicted children.

At the centre of all this is Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe. An architect 
in his third term as mayor, Lowe says he thought he'd be dealing with 
economic development and the challenges of building a vibrant 
downtown core. Instead, he's explaining to grouchy citizens that the 
law doesn't let police just lock up people for panhandling.

Lowe says the city has made progress, and he points to increased 
shelter space and a multi-million-dollar project aimed at helping 
street people.

He also points with frustration to the problems posed by the region's 
bizarre government structure. The Capital Region, with a population 
of about 350,000 -- similar to Etobicoke -- is divided into 13 
municipalities. Victoria's neighbours sometimes solve their street 
problems by driving homeless people into the downtown area and 
dropping them off.

Lowe wishes Soanes had kept quiet about the cancelled convention. 
"Wouldn't it be better to just work with our office?" he asks. The 
city has favoured a low-key approach, heavy on consensus, plans and patience.

A look at the streets indicates that the quiet aproach has failed.

Lowe promises more action. He's trying to get a delegation of 
businesspeople to come with him and push Premier Gordon Campbell for 
help. It's time to stop talking and start solving the problems, he says.

There's still skepticism. Soon, the seasonal tourist crowds will 
thin. Colder, wetter weather will force street people into less 
visible places. Will the drive to fix the problems fade once again?

Lorne White, Tourism Victoria's CEO, doesn't think so. "People are 
saying 'I've had enough of asking for something to be done,'" he says.

Crean, who has been dealing with the issues for 17 years, thinks the 
homeless might not be forgotten. "I don't think so this time," he 
says. "I think the problem is too big to talk about it and walk away."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman