ATTACK HOMELESSNESS AT ITS SOURCE

We Try To Do The Right Thing, But We're In Denial Over The Reasons
That People Are On The Streets

The RCMP in Kelowna has given street people until April 1 to surrender
shopping carts taken from local food stores. Apparently some members
of council and the local business community worry that homeless people
trundling stolen buggies around is bad for the city's image.

The crackdown was initially popular with Kelowna residents. A phone-in
poll by the local television station found 60-per-cent support.

However, it slowly dawned on authorities that a parade of homeless
waifs disgorging their sleeping bags and unwashed laundry on the front
steps of City Hall was not the public relations coup they were looking
for.

After contemplating how April Fool's Day was shaping up, the RCMP
changed their story: "Our concerns are the drug transients who have
been inundating the city and camouflaging as homeless so they can sell
drugs," said Insp. Cam Forbes, a man of wasted talents. He should
consider a career in politics.

Actually the inspector is partly right: About half of all homeless
people in Canada are drug addicts. Another third or more have serious
mental disorders. The one thing they are not, is "camouflaging."

Unfortunately, while Kelowna's approach is heartless or worse, it's
difficult to envisage a practical solution. Authorities differ about
the numbers, but at any one time, there are at least 40,000 people
using emergency shelters or sleeping on the streets of Canada today.

Poverty activists blame inadequate safety net programs, including
income assistance rates they say are too low. In fact, if social
policy must be blamed, a better place to look are two projects with a
much more dubious record.

In recent decades, psychiatric facilities have been downsized, both in
size and number. The number of beds has been cut dramatically, from
nearly 50,000 to 15,000.

Although common sense suggests alternate housing should have been
found before 35,000 people were displaced, this was not done.

While some patients were offered other arrangements, it's no accident
that homelessness emerged as a major issue in the wake of this policy.

At the time, arguments in favour of the new approach seemed
convincing. Psychiatric institutions had a dark history of inhumane
treatment and outright abuse. Leaders in the mental health field
believed that powerful new drugs, coupled with decentralized community
services, could enable most mentally ill patients to live independent
lives.

As we now know, these views have turned out to be overly optimistic
for some seriously ill patients. Although the new drugs are effective,
their side-effects can be daunting. But more important, the promise of
effective community-based care has not materialized.

The reason isn't lack of effort, but simply logistics.

At its peak, Riverview Psychiatric Hospital had more than 4,000
patients, cared for by 2,000 staff -- a ratio of two to one. Today
there are only 800 patients in residence, while the other 3,200 have
dispersed to communities around the province.

The result is that caregivers either can't find them, or can't create
the specialized services needed to treat them. Every policy has
practical limits.

The number of mentally ill people living on our streets is a barometer
for the limits of this policy.

The second policy linked with homelessness is the war on drugs.
Whether criminalizing narcotics is a good idea, can be debated. But
there is no disputing the impact on people existing at the margins of
society.

Sleeping in back alleys and flop houses is a direct consequence of
criminalizing addiction. So long as drug use is illegal, those who are
most reliant on it will live in the shadows.

There have been some partial successes. Assisted-living housing can
help some people with serious mental illness lead more independent
lives. Decriminalization of marijuana, if it survives the slaying of
four RCMP officers at that grow-op in Alberta, is a nod in the
direction of more realistic drug policies.

Yet it feels as if we're a long way from the complete rethink needed
to attack homelessness at its source.

We want street people to shape up: Confiscate their shopping carts and
they'll get the message.

But with the best of intentions, we're the ones in denial. If we can't
face the reality that community-based care has practical limits in the
treatment of mental illness, or that the war on drugs is un-winnable,
homelessness will remain with us indefinitely.