Pubdate: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB) Copyright: 2007 Calgary Herald Contact: http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66 Author: Larissa Liepins, CanWest News Service Cited Report: http://www.cwf.ca/V2/cnt/publication_200709101129.php DRUGS, GANGS ON RISE IN WEST'S CITIES Western Canadian cities are fighting a rising tide of street drugs and gang activity, according to a report released Tuesday by the Canada West Foundation. In researching Hard Times: A Portrait of Street Level Social Problems in Western Canada, the foundation consulted 311 front-line workers, experts and community leaders. They found "street-level social problems" are getting worse -- particularly in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton -- and are concentrated in inner-city neighbourhoods. They are also interconnected and getting more complex, and involve more young people. The result, the report says, is a growing division in western cities between the affluent and the marginalized, higher long-term government service costs, and loss of business and investment in downtown neighbourhoods. While homeless people were more visible in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton -- the report found homeless transients tend to move between the three cities -- street gang activity is worse in Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, according to the study. In Regina, "gang recruitment is rampant and children as young as nine years old are recruited to become drug runners," one participant said. And although no city identified street prostitution as its greatest concern, they did note sex-trade workers are getting younger. So are gang members, who are increasingly born into the gang and drug culture, the report says. In Winnipeg, for example, "many aboriginals are born into gang membership," said one person consulted for the report. "It is like a family business in this sense." Young prostitutes are shuttled between gang houses in the city, allowing gangs to respond quickly to police crackdowns, and evade discovery and arrest, said one report participant. While there are few homeless on the streets of Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, the homeless end up couch-surfing and living in dilapidated housing and crack houses, reads the report. Vancouver's homeless count doubled between 2002 and 2005, Calgary saw a 32 per cent increase between 2004 and 2006, and Edmonton saw a 19 per cent rise in homeless people in the same period. Many homeless suffer from untreated mental illnesses -- "often the underlying cause of addictions," says the report. Hard Times is part of the Canada West Foundation's Western Cities Project, paid for in part by the cities that were surveyed. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek