ATTACK CAUSES OF PROSTITUTION

"Our streets belong to us!" was one placard waved by the group protesting
sex trade workers, pimps and drug dealers in the area of Fraser and
Kingsway recently (Neighbours sick of sex trade , Oct. 27).

We agree, the streets do belong to us. But they belong to all of us --
renters, homeowners, prostitutes, the poor. The protesters' strategy hurts
people who are already hurting. It pushes women and men struggling with
poverty and addiction into another neighbourhood where another set of
homeowners will organize to push them out.

Citizens should instead fight for long-term solutions. Vancouver lacks
resources for helping prostitutes off the streets and off drugs. Any
citizen who cares about these kids should lobby for more detox beds, peer
counselling, safe houses, needle exchanges, etc. Consultations with leaders
in the Downtown Eastside would yield more options.

Instead of calling the police on prostitutes, citizens should call
organizations to ask how to help: Broadway Youth Resource Centre,
Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education, Street Youth Services
and Urban Native Youth Association.

We understand that these protesters are just trying to protect their kids.
But they should not forget that these sex trade workers and drug addicts
are our kids too.

Catherine Ivason,
Ginger Gibson,
Nadene Rehnby,
Vancouver

PROBLEMS HAVE COMPLEX ORIGINS

It's understandable that parents don't want their children exposed to the
detritus of prostitution and drugs. But shuffling the problem from one area
to another will never solve it.

Many who are living the street life arrived there after fleeing family
violence. Many more succumbed to pimps' recruitment attempts and were drawn
first into drugs and then the sex trade. In fact, it's safe to say that
most street workers -- pimps, dealers, prostitutes -- ended up where they
are for one of these reasons and found out the hard way that getting there
is easier than getting away.

We don't point this out to grant impunity to those involved in activities
that make neighbourhoods unsafe for children, but to highlight that these
problems do not appear out of thin air, They have complex origins rooted in
childhood and families, and an end to them can only be found by digging
much deeper than we have been doing.

If we continually fail to see that the price tag attached to supporting
families and protecting children is not as high as the cost of the
alternative, our own children will continually suffer consequences such as
condoms in the schoolyard and needles in the playground. This information
has been pointed out repeatedly by such respected B.C. experts as Joyce
Preston, Cynthia Morton and John Turvey. Yet we continue to deal with these
deep social wounds by sticking Band-Aids on them -- shuffling them around
the city -- and wondering why they won't just go away.

We deeply appreciate the fears of the parents. But while dealing with this
real threat to their children's safety, we hope they will also become vocal
in demanding increased efforts to address issues that will determine how
many of today's children will -- or won't -- comprise new generations of
street workers five, 10, and 15 years from now.

Penny Bain
Executive Director
B.C. Institute Against Family Violence