DRUGS, GANGS ON RISE IN WEST'S CITIES

Western Canadian cities are fighting a rising tide of street drugs and
gang activity, according to a report released Tuesday by the Canada
West Foundation.

In researching Hard Times: A Portrait of Street Level Social Problems in
Western Canada, the foundation consulted 311 front-line workers, experts and
community leaders.

They found "street-level social problems" are getting worse --
particularly in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton -- and are
concentrated in inner-city neighbourhoods. They are also
interconnected and getting more complex, and involve more young people.

The result, the report says, is a growing division in western cities
between the affluent and the marginalized, higher long-term government
service costs, and loss of business and investment in downtown
neighbourhoods.

While homeless people were more visible in Vancouver, Calgary and
Edmonton -- the report found homeless transients tend to move between
the three cities -- street gang activity is worse in Regina, Saskatoon
and Winnipeg, according to the study.

In Regina, "gang recruitment is rampant and children as young as nine
years old are recruited to become drug runners," one participant said.

And although no city identified street prostitution as its greatest
concern, they did note sex-trade workers are getting younger.

So are gang members, who are increasingly born into the gang and drug
culture, the report says. In Winnipeg, for example, "many aboriginals
are born into gang membership," said one person consulted for the
report. "It is like a family business in this sense."

Young prostitutes are shuttled between gang houses in the city,
allowing gangs to respond quickly to police crackdowns, and evade
discovery and arrest, said one report participant.

While there are few homeless on the streets of Regina, Saskatoon and
Winnipeg, the homeless end up couch-surfing and living in dilapidated
housing and crack houses, reads the report.

Vancouver's homeless count doubled between 2002 and 2005, Calgary saw
a 32 per cent increase between 2004 and 2006, and Edmonton saw a 19
per cent rise in homeless people in the same period.

Many homeless suffer from untreated mental illnesses -- "often the
underlying cause of addictions," says the report.

Hard Times is part of the Canada West Foundation's Western Cities
Project, paid for in part by the cities that were surveyed.