Pubdate: Sat, 10 Nov 2007 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Barbara Yaffe GOING TO THE ROOT OF OUR INNER CITY'S WOES What's noteworthy about a big-name media star training his lens on the Downtown Eastside is that folks were bothered more by the prospect of bad publicity than by the misery in our midst. The overriding concern last week at news of Dan Rather's visit was: Will his mission spoil Vancouver's image as it prepares to host the 2010 Olympics? While that's a bothersome question for locals, the fact is Vancouverites have grown outrageously complacent about the country's poorest neighbourhood. They're up in arms over a recent spate of gang shootings, Canada Line construction, exorbitant housing prices. Less so about downtown down and outers. Troubles that have so long lurked in front of and behind the crumbling facades of the Downtown Eastside increasingly are seen as intractable, prompting a collective shrug. Then, too, there's an incentive to keep things as is; if gentrification were to take place, where would the current residents go? Surrounding communities don't want prostitutes, homeless people and drug addicts around. Each time the city announces a new detox centre, folks who've paid half a million-plus for their cozy fixer-uppers understandably freak. And so, the Downtown Eastside presents a hornet's nest of problems. Many in the private sector are reluctant to risk investment cash on a rotten 'hood, despite the fact the location is both central and near the harbour. As for public sector money, this is one place where, if they build it, a lot of people may not come. Hence there's not much incentive for politicians to intervene. Voters aren't exactly picketing for action. So, what to do about the lamentable landscape? Any rational game plan must take into account the notion that, above all, mental health is the issue at play. According to a Senate report, one-third of homeless people and more than half -- some say two-thirds -- of drug abusers have mental health problems. On releasing a report on mental health last year, then-senator Michael Kirby noted that governments have been closing institutional beds for the mentally ill who then wind up in prisons and on streets. Conditions along the street of sighs that is East Hastings have gotten significantly worse since the mid-1990s. That's when Ottawa's social housing contribution declined. And its statutory commitment for assisting provinces with welfare costs ended. Following up Kirby's report in the 2007 budget, Stephen Harper announced $55 million over five years to establish a mental health commission. It's charged with developing a national blueprint to address mental health and addiction challenges. In August, Ottawa announced 17 directors and eight advisory committee chairs for the commission. You can bet their digs in Ottawa were quickly equipped and staffed. But where's the help for Hastings and Main? Elliot Goldner, a committee adviser and SFU professor, this week reported that commission chair Kirby in fact "has met with [Vancouver Mayor] Sam Sullivan and some of his colleagues in the mayor's office and has also met with [Vancouver Coastal Health Authority CEO] Ida Goudreau." The mission, reports Goldner: "To begin discussions about practical approaches to ameliorate conditions for people with complex addiction and mental health problems." For its part, B.C.'s Health Ministry is expected to announce new policy approaches for institutionalized mentally ill people by next summer. And, to its credit, the province in recent years has begun funelling cash into social housing, buying up and renovating single-occupancy rooms for low-income residents. As part of a pact known as the Vancouver Agreement, signed in 2000, the three levels of government pledged, in addition to addressing homelessness, to ensure the Downtown Eastside benefits from the Olympics. The benefits to date have been elusive. It's disconcerting that one of the world's wealthiest nations has not addressed the needs of its most devastated community. That the 2010 Olympics are to be staged in Vancouver is irrelevant. That Dan Rather is documenting the tragedy in the context of a city that won the Games is neither here nor there. It's just wrong to let the Downtown Eastside fester without a firm plan to address the sort of suffering and dying that's taking place in the beating heart of a prosperous city. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart