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.