TOURISM INDUSTRY FACES REALITY

News Of A Cancelled Conference Sparks Debate On What To Do About
Panhandlers And Homeless In Charming Victoria

VICTORIA--There's trouble in paradise.

British Columbia's oh-so-quaint capital has built a $1 billion
tourist industry on gardens, high tea, ocean views and a general
feeling that this is a safe, easy place to visit. A little staid
perhaps, but green and clean, almost a Disney version of a tiny
perfect tourist city, except with whale-watching.

And, increasingly, with panhandlers, homeless people and addicts.
They share the downtown sidewalks with tourists spending a few hours
before they climb back on board their great white ships and head
north to Alaska.

Mutterings about the street people have been around for years. But
Victoria's business community and politicians -- especially the
tourism industry -- have been torn. They wanted the problem fixed,
but feared talking about it would mean bad publicity and lost
business. Everyone tiptoed, literally and figuratively, around the
people sleeping in doorways.

Until Roger Soane, manager of the iconic Fairmont Empress Hotel,
decided things had become so bad that polite silence was no longer an
option. He went public with the news that an organization from
Washington, D.C., had cancelled a $200,000 conference after an
advance visit to Victoria. And he shared their emailed concerns about the city.

"It was full of cheap souvenir shops and countless homeless children
hounding us for money," the organizers complained. "It reminded me of
the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver rather than a world-class city."

It's a ridiculous comparison. The Downtown Eastside is an astonishing
human disaster zone; Victoria has nothing to compare. But the
problems are real. Soane, a globe-trotting hotel management veteran
on his second stop in Victoria, decided they needed to be raised.

"It could mean some short-term damage to my business," he said. "I'm
looking at the long-term damage this could do to Victoria if nothing is done."

Soane's comments started a hot public debate about the people
panhandling, shooting up and sleeping on the streets.

And then Dr. Anthony Barale took it to a whole other level. Barale is
- -- or was until he quit in frustration -- the clinical director of
psychiatric emergency services for the Vancouver Island Health
Authority. He went public in a letter to the Victoria Times-Colonist,
blaming the health authority for a large part of the street problems.
Medical staff struggle to provide basic care for addicts and people
with mental illnesses with "little support and the pitiful resources
provided by VIHA," Barale said. The health system's response is
inadequate, "even by so-called 'Third World' standards."

How bad are the street problems? By the standards of other big
cities, not so serious. An afternoon walk from the Empress and the
Inner Harbour to Victoria's tiny Chinatown will take a tourist past
half a dozen panhandlers with makeshift signs, a couple of clumps of
homeless people passing the time, and perhaps a bottle, in a popular
park, and a rough-looking crowd outside the Streetlink shelter.

But Soanes notes Victoria isn't just another city. Tourism Victoria
promotes it as "a friendly, safe haven for all visitors." The brand,
as the marketers say, is in danger if visitors leave their boutique
hotel and see an addict shooting up in the parking lot.

Anyway, says Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Bruce Carter,
the problem is real. Ask the people who have to clean up vomit, urine
and needles from their store doorways before they open for business
in the morning.

Everybody agrees there's a problem, though some still wish it wasn't
being talked about.

And most agree, at least broadly, on the solutions.

Victoria's only homeless count, done almost two years ago, found
about 700 people without permanent shelter. The number is much higher today.

About half of them reported using drugs. Victoria, like many cities,
is struggling with people addicted to alcohol, crystal meth, heroin
and cocaine. The needle exchange handed out and took in more than one
million syringes last year. About 40 per cent of the homeless said
they had been diagnosed with mental illness. Many of them are former
residents of large institutions that closed more than a decade ago
and they have never received the promised community-based support.

'I'm looking at the long-term damage this could do to Victoria if
nothing is done'

Roger Soane, hotel manager

The addicted and the mentally ill make up almost two-thirds of those
living on the streets.

Then there are the people who simply can't afford a place to live in
a city where the average selling price for homes in July was $514,000
and the rental vacancy rate is under 1 per cent. B.C. welfare rates
allow a single person $325 a month for housing. Beyond the worst
dumps, there's nothing they can afford.

Governments and the health authority trot out statistics about all
the money they have spent and the beds and housing they've created.
It's a response that's deflected criticism in the past. This time,
neither business groups nor social agencies are buying the answers.

The chamber of commerce's Carter says some of the street people
simply need to be moved along somehow. But the mentally ill and
addicted pose a different problem, and government is failing. "We're
not doing this properly," he says. "If we were doing it properly they
would not be there."

John Crean, housing manager for the Cool Aid Society, says
homelessness has tripled over the past three years.

The society, which provides supported housing, emergency shelter and
medical services to the street community, manages 240 housing units.
Crean said he could fill another 750 units today if they were available.

"It's a very desperate situation," he says.

Without housing and support, people can't escape the streets. The
situation is as bad or worse for the addicted. The health authority
has seven detox beds available for the entire region; finding
treatment is a huge struggle, and continued support largely
unavailable. The Salvation Army plans to open a six-bed treatment
centre for meth-addicted youth this fall. More than 150 parents have
already called looking desperately for help for addicted children.

At the centre of all this is Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe. An architect
in his third term as mayor, Lowe says he thought he'd be dealing with
economic development and the challenges of building a vibrant
downtown core. Instead, he's explaining to grouchy citizens that the
law doesn't let police just lock up people for panhandling.

Lowe says the city has made progress, and he points to increased
shelter space and a multi-million-dollar project aimed at helping
street people.

He also points with frustration to the problems posed by the region's
bizarre government structure. The Capital Region, with a population
of about 350,000 -- similar to Etobicoke -- is divided into 13
municipalities. Victoria's neighbours sometimes solve their street
problems by driving homeless people into the downtown area and
dropping them off.

Lowe wishes Soanes had kept quiet about the cancelled convention.
"Wouldn't it be better to just work with our office?" he asks. The
city has favoured a low-key approach, heavy on consensus, plans and patience.

A look at the streets indicates that the quiet aproach has failed.

Lowe promises more action. He's trying to get a delegation of
businesspeople to come with him and push Premier Gordon Campbell for
help. It's time to stop talking and start solving the problems, he says.

There's still skepticism. Soon, the seasonal tourist crowds will
thin. Colder, wetter weather will force street people into less
visible places. Will the drive to fix the problems fade once again?

Lorne White, Tourism Victoria's CEO, doesn't think so. "People are
saying 'I've had enough of asking for something to be done,'" he says.

Crean, who has been dealing with the issues for 17 years, thinks the
homeless might not be forgotten. "I don't think so this time," he
says. "I think the problem is too big to talk about it and walk away."