HOUSING ADDICTS AND CUTTING CRIME

When Maclean's magazine reported that Victoria is one of Canada's most
dangerous cities, the general reaction was disbelief. The story made
the capital region sound like a war zone.

Of course that's not true. Violent crime is mercifully rare in
Victoria.

Criminologists were quick to point out that Maclean's was mixing
apples and oranges. The magazine bundled everything from murder and
rape to petty offences together, without drawing a distinction.
Victoria has a high level of property crime, but that scarcely makes
our city "dangerous."

Still, what the magazine found is cause enough for alarm. Maclean's
examined the prevalence of personal and property crimes in Canadian
cities with more than 50,000 people.

The results were striking. Large urban centres like Montreal and
Toronto, despite their reputation for gang-related violence, are
actually models of order.

The real crime capitals are the small towns of Western
Canada.

Regina, Winnipeg and Saskatoon had the worst records, with four B.C.
cities close behind -- Prince George, New Westminster, Chilliwack and,
yes, Victoria.

Property crimes throughout the capital region are twice the national
average and far above the U.S. experience. Only 10 per cent of
American cities can match our rate of burglaries and car thefts.

Victoria city police investigate 10,000 break-ins a year, and by some
estimates the actual number may be three times that. Many victims have
given up reporting their losses.

And while property crimes, by definition, don't involve violence, the
harm they cause can be just as real. The Burnaby senior whose home was
invaded three times in a week may have been physically unhurt. But it
takes a police cruiser stationed outside his home to let him sleep at
night.

The 94-year-old woman whose wedding ring was stolen as she lay in a
Vancouver hospital bed suffered no bodily injury. And yet the harm
done was grievous.

The truth is that while Victoria is not a "dangerous" city, in the
guns and bullets sense, we have a real problem. Petty crime has
reached the point where its sheer volume threatens to swamp our community.

When asked for their reaction, city police blamed the large numbers of
drug addicts on downtown streets. "Addiction obviously drives a vast
majority of our property crime, particularly low-end crime," said
Victoria's interim police chief Bill Naughton.

Naughton has asked for more resources and points out that recruiting
problems have tied his hands.

But are there really no other options? Researchers at Simon Fraser
University suggest a different kind of approach.

They point out that homelessness and drug addiction are closely bound
up with mental illness. And they calculate that each year it costs an
average $55,000 per person to deal with mentally ill and severely
addicted people living on the street when shelter, jail and medical
costs are included.

If supportive housing was provided for everyone who needed it, there
would be a savings of $20,000 for each individual. More important, the
vicious circle of drugs, homelessness and crime would be broken.

There would also be huge difficulties finding the required housing and
persuading street people to use it. The study concedes as much.

But if even a proportion of drug addicts were provided safe
accommodation and proper medical care, the benefit to the community
would be immediate.

It might be that tougher policing methods are required to roll back
crime in our urban core. But before we begin carting addicts off to
jail, we need a better option.

The Simon Fraser scheme would give us a moral high ground we now lack
in this battle.