RIDEAU STREET NEEDS REAL HELP

As a community, we have failed Rideau Street. Drugs and homelessness
in that area are not new. For decades, we have turned our heads from
this growing problem.

There have been many plans to construct new buildings or to erect new
flower gardens. But there have been few ideas for dealing with the
critical social problems that fester in that area.

Now the difficulties have become so large that we cannot afford to
ignore them any longer. Last month, the Shepherds of Good Hope had to
close for two days because drug-dealing and drug use had overwhelmed
the facility. The Salvation Army has hired security guards to deal
with violent drug use. When the shelters become this chaotic, it is
bad ... very bad.

So what to do?

Our usual response has been a short, urgent police crackdown. The
drug dealers hide until the police leave. Then it is back to illegal
business as usual. But the problem has become so bad that Ottawa
really does need a concerted police effort on Rideau Street.

The problem with such a crackdown, much like it is with humanity-old
prostitution, is that a number of arrests just move the trade to
another spot. So when prostitution is made difficult for a while in
the Byward Market, it shuffles into Centretown for a stretch. Do the
comfortable people of the Glebe, Westboro or Sandy Hill want drug
dealers and the homeless on their doorsteps? Do we want pills
bartered on the front steps of the National Gallery or the Parliament
Buildings? Probably not.

Police say that 10 officers have been added to their drug squad and
the force has a strategy to deal with the issue. More power to them.
When the shelters get out of control, we need the police to deal with
the most visible and most easily attacked part of the problem.

But this is only a respite. We will never control drug addiction or
homelessness by simply arresting people. Minor drug offences will
have most offenders back on the street within weeks, if not days.

Instead, the community as a whole must address the issue from the ground up.

What are the roots of homelessness, mental illness on the street,
addictions? And why do these people go to Rideau Street?

This city must deal with the origins of the problem to at least keep
the difficulties on the street somewhat under control.

We need our politicians, police, social workers, Rideau Street
businesspeople and area residents to come together to address the
causes. We must investigate harm reduction and supportive housing
solutions. If we don't do these sorts of things, businesses will fail
and residents will depart. Rideau Street will be left to the
criminals, the addicts, the homeless and an occasional lost tourist
who mistakenly ventures onto the street.

For years we've had politicians mouth platitudes about fixing Rideau
Street. Let's get together and do something that works this time.