The province says it鈥檚 time to change the way it's handling addiction and homelessness.
Terry Yung, B.C. minister of state for community safety and integrated services, conveyed that message while touring Vancouver Island cities last week, and met with Nanaimo-Gabriola MLA Sheila Malcolmson and Nanaimo-Lantzville MLA George Anderson on Friday, Feb. 7.
Yung heard about challenges dealing with homelessness, addiction, crime and other social disorder, but also listened to ideas from businesses, neighbourhood associations and local government officials on ways to help house and treat people living on the streets and lower crime.
The minister of state has dealt with the impacts of addiction and mental health challenges as a 30-year veteran of the Vancouver Police Department, when he worked a beat in Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside. He said addressing addictions mental health and housing requires an approach that combines integrated services.
鈥淲e cannot arrest our way out of poverty or people being homeless or mental health and drug addiction,鈥� he said.
Yung said it's important to hear about the unique challenges faced by individual cities and try to "bring balance back to the community." He said there there won鈥檛 be a one-size-fits-all solution and audits need to be conducted to understand each community needs.
鈥淏ecause the status quo is not working and we鈥檝e got to do a lot better to make sure that people in Nanaimo feel safe to go about their business and that Nanaimo is a safe place to work, live and play,鈥� Yung said.
Steps that can be taken to curb street disorder include rebate programs for businesses to help cover costs of broken windows and other property damage by vandalism, graffiti removal and maintenance of places where unhoused people congregate or camp. Nanaimo has had those kinds of programs operating for several years.
鈥淚鈥檓 here to listen to all the good ideas from people of Nanaimo and take it back to Victoria to look at how to incorporate those ideas into action 鈥� We can鈥檛 just sit here and talk about it,鈥� he said. 鈥淒uring the [election] campaign, loud and clear, people in my riding said we鈥檙e tired of the status quo, we鈥檙e tired of you looking into it, listening, thinking about it. The time for action is now.鈥�
Working in Vancouver鈥檚 Downtown Eastside, Yung it was heartbreaking to see lives lost and hopes dashed to addiction, and he said the way homelessness and addiction has been dealt with isn鈥檛 fair to the people experiencing it or to first responders.
鈥淣obody deserves what happens to them on the streets 鈥� If you鈥檙e homeless you鈥檙e 19 times, or more, likely to be a victim of crime because nobody鈥檚 going to look after you,鈥� he said.
Multiple ministries must be co-ordinated more effectively to get people housed, safe, in treatment programs and to protect communities by targeting repeat violent offenders 鈥渨ho aren鈥檛 ill, but they just want to victimize people,鈥� Yung said, adding that those offenders shouldn't be back out onto the streets two hours after being arrested.
He said achieving those goals won鈥檛 happen overnight, but said communities aren鈥檛 prepared to wait another two years to see results, either. The measure of success of community programs will have to be evidence-based to see which approaches provide the best return on investment. In Gastown, 45 days after increasing the presence of police and security teams on the ground and opening a community policing centre, violence in that area dropped 70 per cent.
The approach in Gastown is showing a good return on investment because it鈥檚 governed by an advisory council with representation from businesses and residents, but that same approach won鈥檛 necessarily work in other communities with different requirements.
鈥淓ven here in Nanaimo, depending on where you are in Nanaimo, you have different challenges and needs,鈥� he said.
Malcolmson said she and her colleagues heard from stakeholders. Business operators, she said, want to have easier access to city resources to quickly get help for people they see in crisis.
鈥淲e also heard the vandalism grants that we provided to help businesses repair 鈥� were under-subscribed, but also hard to access, especially outside municipal boundaries,鈥� Malcolmson said.
Anderson said businesses are also saying they want to come to the table and partner with the provincial government.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 something that the premier has said, that he wants to restart this relationship with the business community and make sure that we鈥檙e providing an economy and also homes for people that they feel safe and that they can have a vibrant, prosperous future in,鈥� Anderson said.
Kevan Shaw, vice-president of the Nanaimo Area Public Safety Association, said after meeting with Yung, he was happy to hear government taking a fresh approach to the problems.
鈥淚nsanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and that鈥檚 what this government has been doing 鈥� so I see a lot of hope here that they are changing now鈥�" Shaw said. "They鈥檙e open to listening, finally, and they鈥檙e not keeping us at a distance going, 'you don鈥檛 know what your talking about' 鈥� They know there鈥檚 a public outcry. Things have to change."
