GROUP URGES SAFE HOUSE

Would Help Prostitutes Escape The Street

A civic committee urged the city yesterday to spend $500,000 to
establish a safe house for prostitutes struggling to clean up their
lives.

"This is a huge and pressing issue of real urgency," Coun. Garth Steek
told the protection and community services committee. "It's harrowing
to think 11-year-old children are out on the street selling their bodies."

Steek was referring to a Free Press report about an 11-year-old girl
and her 12-year-old friend picked up by police last week during a
prostitution sweep in the city's west end.

Police began a month-long campaign yesterday to identify children
involved in the sex trade and remove them from the street.

The four-person protection committee endorsed a series of
recommendations from an ad hoc group that studied Winnipeg's
prostitution problem, but it went even further by actually voting to
spend $500,000 for a safe house.

The volunteer group said a safe house was needed to help get sex-trade
workers off the street, but it recognized the province had more
responsibility for social services than the city.

Drug Abuse

However, Steek said the issue was too important to delay while
governments debated how to pay for measures to protect young women
trapped in a cycle of drug abuse and prostitution.

Committee chair Jenny Gerbasi voted against the motion, saying the
city should talk to the province first before opening its wallet.

Gerbasi added the city needed a long-term sustainable plan for helping
street prostitutes, instead of what she called a "knee-jerk" reaction
to a high-profile problem.

The issue goes to Mayor Glen Murray and executive policy committee
next week for consideration.

Meanwhile, Save the Children Canada has already applied for $1.5
million to operate a 10-bed safe house for three years, a spokeswoman
said.

Penny Sinclair said the money is being sought from the Winnipeg
Housing and Homelessness Initiative, a five-year $22-million program
supported by the three levels of government.

Insp. Stan Tataryn of the police vice division told the committee
arresting prostitutes and putting them through the justice system
isn't working.

He said he would like to have some place where the women could be
taken so their needs could be assessed and aid provided on an
emergency basis.

The committee endorsed all 16 recommendations made by the volunteer
group, but several of them require action by other levels of
government.