MAYOR PLANS 'BROKEN WINDOWS' CAMPAIGN TO COMBAT PANHANDLING

Raising Welfare Rates, Building Housing The Solution, Anti-Poverty
Activist Says

Marty kneels on the sidewalk, rotting teeth showing in his open
mouth, his hand out for a loonie or a quarter.

Unlike some panhandlers in downtown Vancouver, he doesn't intimidate
people into giving him money.

"No, I don't," he says. "But I know a lot of them that do."

Marty -- he keeps his last name to himself -- was working
intersections along West Pender Street on Friday, approaching
pedestrians waiting to cross the street. He's skin over bones, hair
and beard greying and unkempt, his long blue shirt too big on him.

"I want to get a room and I want to get food," he said when asked why
he was begging.

"If I can get a Big Mac hamburger I'll sure enjoy the day a bit
better, because I haven't eaten for two days."

He is one of dozens, if not hundreds, of people begging -- and often
sleeping -- on downtown streets, and tourism industry leaders are
complaining they're damaging the city's reputation as a safe destination.

Mayor Sam Sullivan says he plans to introduce policies to combat
street disorder, perhaps along the lines of the so-called Broken
Windows campaigns used in U.S. cities to try to clean up the streets.

The Broken Windows theory suggests if broken windows, for example,
are repaired within a short time and streets are kept clean, vandals
are much less likely to break more windows or cause further damage.

Proponents of the theory say it deters petty crime and low-level
anti-social behavior, thus preventing major crimes.

Vancouver-Burrard MLA Lorne Mayencourt says many of his constituents
feel intimidated by panhandlers.

The problem, Mayencourt said, is that "we have made it culturally
acceptable to make a living on the street in that fashion."

"The message is quite clear: You can come here, you can panhandle,
you can sleep on our beaches, you can sleep in our parks, you can get
all the drugs you want, and people will protect your civil rights to
do all of those things."

Solutions, he says, include not giving them money. Instead, send a
monthly cheque to an organization like the Salvation Army.

They also include expanding outreach programs to offer the homeless a
place to stay, put them in touch with health-care services and get
them on welfare.

"We can change behaviours around panhandling, around squatting,
around drugs," he said. "A lot of that can be changed through
reaching out to people and getting the message to them."

Long-time anti-poverty activist Jean Swanson has a different
approach. Remember, she asks, when there were almost no homeless
people on the streets and very little panhandling?

"What has changed is the social safety net has been completely
wrecked," Swanson said.

The federal and provincial governments used to finance up to 30,000
units of affordable housing across Canada a year, she said. Now
there's "just a drib and a drab" of social housing.

Hundreds of people with mental health issues were pushed out of
psychiatric institutions. Many of them now live on the streets.

Welfare rates haven't increased for 12 years.

In 2002, the federal government abolished legislation requiring the
provinces to give welfare to anyone in need.

In 2002, the B.C. government brought in regulations that make it more
difficult to qualify and stay on welfare. Several studies have blamed
a recent doubling in homeless rates on those changes.

"You can blame people who are impoverished 'til hell freezes over,"
Swanson said. "But they still have to eat and they still have to
sleep someplace. Unless you go after the government policies that
have caused the disorder -- the welfare rates and the lack of housing
- -- you're not going to solve the problem."

She added: "I think the Board of Trade should be begging the
government to raise welfare rates and build housing."

Would that result in fewer panhandlers? "Of course."