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Metropolis Reality Forums Ť Vancouver's skid row to get $20 million ť

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   Vancouver's skid row to get $20 million

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Vancouver's skid row to get $20 million
« on: Apr 22^nd, 2003, 9:21pm »

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Vancouver's skid row to get $20 million

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.asp?id=DEE3CD03-D3CA-4C38-B7D8-41F D361F3D78

Tuesday, April 22, 2003

An addict shoots up openly in the seedy streets of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Mayor Larry Campbell supports safe-injection sites and treatment as part of a solution to drug addiction.

VANCOUVER (CP) -- The federal and B.C. governments are pouring $20 million into Vancouver's poorest neighbourhood.

The funding deal, announced Tuesday at a news conference in the heart of the Downtown Eastside, is supposed to revitalize the notorious area and shut down its open drug market.

The five-year-plan is part of an Olympic legacy fund created with Vancouver's bid for the 2010 Winter Games.

The funds, a 50-50 split between Ottawa and Victoria, will flow whether or not Vancouver wins the bid in July, said George Abbott, B.C. minister of community, aboriginal and children's services.

"The commitment stands," he said.

The cash will go towards projects that meet the objectives of building a healthy, safe community with affordable housing, said officials.

"We will be listening to the community as to what we need to be doing down here," said Mayor Larry Campbell.

The mayor said he wants to see housing for all the neighbourhood's residents, although he acknowledged it won't be simple.

"Nobody has promised that it would be easy but we will be going through with it," he said.

The news conference was interrupted several times by local residents calling for a safe drug-injection site.

Campbell has faced criticism over the delay in setting up the sites, which he promised to deliver as part of a so-called four-pillar plan to attack the city's drug problem.

Some activists have also expressed frustration over a recent police crackdown on drug dealers, arguing it put too much emphasis on enforcement -- one of the drug strategy's pillars -- but not acting on the others, which are prevention, treatment and harm reduction.

One heckler said the crackdown in the neighbourhood has simply pushed drug users to the back alleys where they're more likely to die of a overdose.

Resident Mark May said he was among the homeless and activists who squatted in the vacant former Woodward's department store to protest a lack of low-cost housing in the area.

But he said those protesters aren't receiving recognition or asked for their input as to how the money is spent in their neighbourhood.

"It'll be (decided) in the office downtown, who gets what, who feeds who," said May.

Campbell said some of the money would go toward redeveloping the Woodward's building.

The provincial and federal governments will split the bill, giving $10 million each.

Š Copyright 2003 Canadian Press

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