CHINATOWN MERCHANTS BLAST ADDICT CENTRE

Area Is Scary, One Shop Owner Says

Some chinatown merchants are saying that criminal activity has
icreased since a controversial drop-in centre for drug addicts opened
last month in the heart of Vancouver's drug market.

"We've been broken into twice in the last week, once on Wednesday and
once on Sunday," said Eddie Li, manager of Novelty Gifts Express Ltd.,
112 East Pender. "They took lighters and perfumes and my shelves were
broken. There was about $4,000 in damage.

"I've never been broken into before, but these last two months have
been terrible."

The Health Contact Centre, which opened on the ground floor of the
Roosevelt hotel near Main and Hastings, will eventually include two
other health clinics and a "lifeskills" centre in the area run by the
Vancouver Coastal Health authority.

In spite of rumours in the community that the contact centre will
eventually become a place where drug users can inject drugs under the
supervision of health-care workers, drug use is not allowed on site.
The owner of the Roosevelt Hotel has also stipulated in his lease with
the health authority that there not even be a needle exchange.

The four health facilities are supposed to be part of a continuum of
care that will lead people to detox and treatment or, failing that, at
least to less disease, overdosing and homelessness.

However, Chinatown merchants say they've noticed more drug addicts in
the area since the centre opened.

"There's definitely more traffic in the back there," said John Wong,
owner of Wun Sang company, 121 East Pender. "It's scary."

Despite the concerns, police Inspector Ken Frail, who is in charge of
the policing the Downtown Eastside, said crime hasn't gone up.

"There's that perception [of increased crime], but I haven't seen in
the data I've reviewed that there's an increase."

Added Frail: "This [the new centre] is a new initiative. The goal is to
connect with the most marginalized and get them off the street."

Although the centres are the initiative of the health authority, they
are part of both the city's attempt to introduce a more effective drug
strategy and a three-government effort called the Vancouver Agreement
to improve the safety economy and health of Vancouver's troubled
Downtown Eastside,

The Health Contact Centre, which is staffed by nurses, health-care
workers and Carnegie Centre activities programmers, is the subject of
a lawsuit by local business owners, who are claiming the city violated
its own zoning bylaws by allowing the health centre to open in what is
supposed to be a retail-only strip.

There has been steady opposition from local business groups and some
residents for almost three years, since the then Vancouver/Richmond
health board first proposed the idea of a "resource centre" for drug
users.

The idea originally came from longtime Downtown Eastside resident Bud
Osborn and caught the interest of the city, police, and health
authorities, who were looking for ways to grapple with the rising
HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C epidemic, as well as the open drug market
along several blocks of Hastings.