POLICE STUDY HIGHLIGHTS DRUG USE DOWNTOWN

A police report on people living on the street revealed 45 of
Victoria's homeless are intensive intravenous drug users -- some
spending as much as $2,000 a day on cocaine and heroin.

The report included anecdotes of life on the street.

An entry on 34-year-old "William" found Sept. 5 on the 800 block of
Mason St. noted: "In jail for last 10 years off and on. Last
conviction nine months for robbery. Currently doing 10-15 grams of
heroin per day. Laid off from a logging job. On no social assistance
or other support."

"And these people are often and obviously most problematic for our
community. Both in terms of interaction with the public and in terms
of policing," Victoria police Insp. John Ducker told Victoria city
council members at their committee of the whole meeting last week.

Ducker noted that it costs about $90 per gram for cocaine.

"Almost 100 per cent of that money would be derived from criminal
activity," he added. "Often times these people come to our attention
several times per day," Ducker said.

The observation was one of several documented in a police study on
homelessness, conducted from Sept. 1 to Oct. 15 last year.

However, Coun. Geoff Young questioned why they were included in
discussions about homelessness.

"To me, looking at this as a problem of homelessness, is missing the
point," he said, adding that drug treatment is a separate problem
that requires a "distinct, and separate" solution.

Mayor Alan Lowe said the city is working to develop safe consumption
sites, which may offer opportunities for people to kick their drug habits.

"That doesn't seem to me to address the heart of the issue, which is
a population of people who have no source of income who have to find
$50,000 a day somewhere within the downtown," Young said.

Ducker argued that homelessness and drug treatment are "completely
and inextricably interlinked."

"No amount of treatment and intervention is going to work if at the
end of the process they go back to living on the street," he said.

In the report, police identified 315 people as homeless -- 163
sleeping in parks and doorways and the rest in shelter spaces.

The figure is lower than the January 2005 Homeless Count conducted by
the Cool-Aid Society; however, the police study did not include
people sleeping in hotels, vehicles, couch surfing or sex trade
workers that spent the night with dates. If one was to factor in
those persons, both counts would be consistent, the report noted.

Ducker said the high number of people sleeping outside speaks to the
issue of Victoria's dearth of emergency services.

"Maybe we should be at the Extreme Weather protocol all year round,"
he suggested.

Councillors debated whether shelter beds or more long-term solutions
such as affordable housing should be a priority.

"It's time to stop contemplating either/or, what, how, what. And
let's say, 'there's 315 people that need help and we need shelter
beds for them now...' and we need to look at a really strategic
vision of how we're going to get housing in place," Coun. Sonya Chandler said.

Report also looks are makeup of drug users

A recent Victoria police report on homelessness also found 70 per
cent of the city's IV drug users come from the Capital Regional
District, while 30 per cent come from outside the CRD.

Fifteen of the 45 heavy drug users are female and a large number are
First Nations. The report noted that the number in female users
appears to be increasing more rapidly than males.

Most IV drug users prefer injectable cocaine and crack cocaine, while
heroin is making a comeback on the street.

Police found very few people who identified themselves as crystal meth users.

They also noticed that many hard-core users do not utilize shelter
space, but instead "hang around together in a "tribe"-like culture
moving from AIDS Vancouver Island on Cormorant Street, to StreetLink
to the west side of Johnson Street Bridge.