Pubdate: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2010 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Ethan Baron Note: with a file from Cheryl Chan TIME TO STAGGER WELFARE PAYOUTS On 'Welfare Wednesday,' Food Is Forgotten And Drug Dealers Do Brisk Business The party starts early on Welfare Wednesday in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, thanks to a provincial initiative that gives social-assistance recipients their money through direct deposit. By 2 a.m. on the day dubbed Mardi Gras, people hooked on crack, heroin and crystal meth are lined up at ATMs in the area. Vancouver police Sgt. Fiona Wilson-Bates, lead author of a ground-breaking study into social and policing issues in the Downtown Eastside, came back this winter to the seedy streets after leaving in 2007 to work on sex-crime and gang teams. Upon her return, she noticed the ATMs that had started popping up when the provincial government introduced direct-deposit welfare payments shortly after she left. In November 2009, 44 per cent of Downtown Eastside social-assistance recipients -- 3,032 people -- received payments by direct deposit, compared to 40 per cent -- 2,637 people -- in January 2008, according to the B.C. Ministry of Housing and Social Development. On a recent Welfare Wednesday, the last Wednesday of the month, when welfare cheques are issued, Wilson-Bates saw the result of the direct-deposit system. In the run-up to midnight, all was calm, and few people were around. "Why is it so quiet?" she asked another officer. "Just wait," she was told. Then the queues started, and the ATMs began spewing taxpayers' money into the hands of people with one thing on their minds: drugs. "There were lineups at the ATMs up to 25 deep," Wilson-Bates says. "There were dealers at every corner. By 3 a.m., there were dozens and dozens of people on the street." Liberty Market owner Mohammed Qureshi says 900 transactions a month are conducted at his two ATMs, which run non-stop in the early hours of Mardi Gras. Qureshi sees people take out their $200 daily limit, then return the next night just after midnight to max out their daily withdrawal again. Drug dealers loiter outside on the sidewalk. "They finish, three or four days, all their money," says Qureshi, who cut holes in the awning outside his shop so rain would discourage dealers and addicts from congregating in front of his door. Welfare Wednesday is also called "issue day" because cheques are issued. It is followed by "tissue day" when the money is gone and the regret kicks in. Doling out the monthly sum all at once contributes to the misery of addicted welfare recipients and to "mayhem" on the streets, says Sen. Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor, chief provincial coroner and drug-squad Mountie. "It just [creates] from my point of view, the perfect storm of difficulties for people who are already in a very difficult situation," Campbell says. In the days between Issue Day and Tissue Day, fallout from the single-payment system changes the way the Union Gospel Mission operates its dinner service. From that Wednesday through the Saturday, the facility offers one dinner service instead of two, feeding 100 people instead of the usual 225. "We actually adapt our services, knowing the cycle . . . and the reality on the street," says Bruce Curtis, senior chaplain for the Union Gospel Mission. Some of their clients are eating out during those days, and some just aren't consuming much besides drugs, Curtis says. Campbell has been saying for years that welfare payments in the Downtown Eastside should be staggered throughout the month to prevent the crime and suffering that result from Mardi Gras, and which affect all the area's residents. "We sometimes lose sight of the fact that this is a tremendously vibrant community and that not everyone is suffering from difficulties such as mental illness, or addictions," Campbell says. Downtown Eastside resident Ron Boos, 48, believes staggered payments make sense. "People would get a little bit wiser on how they spend their money," says Boos, who has a morphine addiction. Those immersed in the partying often fall victim to predators who roll them for their money or drugs, and drug-bingers often end up hospitalized, Campbell says. Staggered payments would not necessarily prevent addicts from blowing all their money on drugs and liquor, Curtis notes. "It just splits it up, the abuse, through the month," Curtis says. "I don't think it's an easy solution." I tried to get Minister of Housing and Social Development Rich Coleman to talk about the issue of giving lump-sum payments to drug-addicted British Columbians. The minister declined an interview, with a press liaison providing a response by email, not to be attributed to a specific person. "When necessary, the ministry has the ability to issue funds on a biweekly or bimonthly basis to clients who have shown difficulty in managing funds," the email says. That staggered-payment method, however, is optional. Whether or not staggered payments can help stop people from spending all their money in a few days, making it mandatory in the Downtown Eastside would put an end to Mardi Gras -- an outcome clearly beneficial to all Downtown Eastside residents. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D