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Panhandlers, tacky shops cost Empress a conference


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#41 Galvanized

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Posted 26 August 2006 - 08:36 AM

Begging for help
Victoria begs for help to deal with homeless


Carolyn Heiman and Jeff Bell, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, August 26, 2006

Victoria can't deal with homeless people and their often related addiction problems on its own, a frustrated Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe said Friday, as he called on the province to increase funding for treatment and reopen hospitals for the mentally ill.

"We'll look at anything," Lowe said. "We're at the point where the general public is downright mad and there is a perception that we're not doing anything."

Lowe said he wants to meet with Premier Gordon Campbell to discuss the issue. He'll ask representatives from businesses affected by the problem and agencies struggling to deal with the issue to join him. He has already been in discussion with Howard Waldner, chief executive officer of Vancouver Island Health Authority. And, he repeated a call for wet houses for hard-core alcoholics to drink safely, out of the public eye.

"If the premier wants to double tourism in the next 10 years, he needs to help us deal with homelessness," Lowe added.

Lowe's comments come on the heels of a growing controversy regarding the Archie Courtnall Centre, an emergency facility for the mentally ill that has been overwhelmed by patients who suffer from addictions and other problems such as homelessness, according to its clinical director, who quit this week over the issue.

And, it comes a week after the manager of the Fairmont Empress attributed the loss of a conference to complaints about aggressive panhandlers on a tacky shopping strip along Government Street.

"Both situations are about the same issue," Lowe said. "The bottom line is there are not enough services for those who need the service."

Dr. Anthony Barale said the same thing this week when he resigned from the $2.2-million Courtnall Centre at Royal Jubilee Hospital. He said he was frustrated by a lack of support from the Vancouver Island Health Authority to deal with the addicted patients, and argued there aren't enough detox and residential treatment beds to accommodate the number of people needing them.

Now, VIHA officials say they've launched a review of the situation at the Courtnall Centre, which was funded largely through the efforts of the Courtnall brothers -- Bruce and former NHLers Russ and Geoff -- and named in memory of their father, who committed suicide after battling mental illness.

"No question it's an issue that needs to be addressed, and I can appreciate the clinicians and some of their frustration," Michael Conroy, chief operating officer for VIHA, said Friday. "Part of our frustration is we're doing a number of things, whether it's the initiative to support homeless agencies -- we support hundreds of beds in the homeless area -- or the fact we're increasing our youth addictions programs by about 30 per cent in terms of funding."

Conroy acknowledged that the Courtnall Centre has faced "service pressure", but added that what happens there "gives us good information as to what we're seeing presented in the community."

He said it appears that the percentage of people coming to the centre with a combination of addiction and mental health issues has not exceeded expectations, but the volume of patients has.

"I think that there's a bit of a frustration that once they are discharged, where do they go to receive the proper support to prevent them coming back?"

Conroy pointed out that the relationship between addiction problems and mental health is a "multi-faceted issue" requiring the efforts of many groups. And more detoxification or detox beds is not the "magic bullet."

Detox is a process, he explained, and many people have to use a detox facility more than once.

They need treatment and support over several years, said Gordon Harper, executive director of the Regional Addictions Advocacy Society, which works with VIHA to help addicts find treatment.

"If you're homeless, it doesn't work so well. If you're in an abusive relationship, it doesn't work so well. If you're sharing accommodation with someone else who abuses substances, it doesn't work so well."
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2006
Past President of Victoria's Flâneur Union Local 1862

#42 Mike K.

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Posted 26 August 2006 - 11:01 AM

Good on Lowe for sticking his neck out. You don't see Causton or Leonard jumping into the ring to help deal with this regional issue.

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#43 Holden West

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Posted 26 August 2006 - 12:24 PM

"It was full of cheap souvenir shops and countless homeless people hounding us for money. It was not relaxing and enjoyable but rather quite uncomfortable. It reminded me of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver rather than a world-class city," the organizer wrote to Empress general manager Roger Soane.


In this weeks' Monday Magazine Russ Francis points out that the Washingtonian's original email used the phrase "countless homeless children" and that Soane changed it to "people".

Uh huh....when's the last time you were hounded by "countless homeless children" downtown. Perhaps he's confused us with [url=http://www.zyworld.com/newhopeindia/images/help/railchild.jpg:c3f70]Bombay[/url:c3f70]
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#44 Mike K.

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Posted 26 August 2006 - 02:10 PM

Countless homeless children? I assume he's talking about the streetkids (street youth is more appropriate?) that sit on many a corner -- and judging by the quote alteration the author of the article also considered the street children observation as greatly exaggerated.

I do have to admit though that the drug pushing situation in downtown, which spans the age groups, is the highest I've ever seen it.

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#45 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 26 August 2006 - 04:48 PM

^ Really. What corner...
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#46 Holden West

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Posted 26 August 2006 - 05:23 PM

This is what confuses me. The street kids pretty much confine themselves to Douglas St., usually panhandle (if at all) passively. It's the older people that tend to approach and ask for money. This happens quite rarely.

I don't mean to downplay this, and I agree with derf that the drug trade is disturbingly larger than before and the human costs much more visible.

Question:

Has anyone reading this ever been "aggressively panhandled"? I define this as being confronted in such a way that made you uncomfortable, physically or otherwise.

In three decades of walking the streets of Victoria, the answer for me is, NO.
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

#47 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 26 August 2006 - 06:11 PM

In three decades of walking the streets of Victoria, the answer for me is, NO.


Me neither, nor ever felt threatened even during a 3am trip to the pizza-by-the-slice place.

But then again, I'm 6'4 and 285 lbs., and 215 of that is pure muscle.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#48 renthefinn

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Posted 26 August 2006 - 07:12 PM

Well, I think it's a question of what is comfortable to people. People coming from a cruis ship that have lived most of their lives in a suburb (possibly gated) stopping in Victoria and seeing a real city (possibly for the first time) may get scared easily when asked for some change.

#49 aastra

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Posted 27 August 2006 - 11:13 AM

I've witnessed aggressive stuff before but it's never happened to me personally.

Like Ren says, I think a lot of outsiders come to BC only to be shocked by how "equal opportunity" everything is. In other words, in many other places the problems of poverty or drugs or even petty crime are segregated to certain areas and are all but non-existent in other certain areas (the other certain areas being where many of the tourists come from).

Downtown Victoria is supposed to be brimming over with flowers and tea cozies, not street problems. The street problems should be pushed out of downtown to some crappy ethnic neighbourhood or some place like that so decent folks don't ever get to see them.

Methinks the "children" thing was indeed a reference to teens asking for money, like the guy I bought the big meal for or the other bozo that I gave my transit transfer to on Robson Street.

#50 Holden West

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Posted 02 September 2006 - 01:19 PM

Frommers travel guide:

"The Shopping Scene

Explorers beware: The brick-paved Government Street promenade, from the Inner Harbour 5 blocks north to Yates Street, is a jungle of cheap souvenir shops. There are gems in here, certainly -- Irish linen, fine bone china, quality Native art, and Cowichan Indian sweaters thick enough to bivouac in -- but to find these riches, you'll have to hack your way through tangled creepers of Taiwanese-made knickknacks and forbidding groves of maple-syrup bottles."


:lol:
"Beaver, ahoy!""The bridge is like a magnet, attracting both pedestrians and over 30,000 vehicles daily who enjoy the views of Victoria's harbour. The skyline may change, but "Big Blue" as some call it, will always be there."
-City of Victoria website, 2009

 



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