HELP WHERE IT'S NEEDED

Dispersing social agencies so every neighbourhood in town has to put
up with some poor people might appeal to some voters, but it's bad
social policy.

Ottawa Councillor Georges Bedard has been trying to keep new services
such as homeless shelters, drug-treatment clinics and group homes out
of his Rideau-Vanier ward for years, and he has a powerful new ally:
provincial Community Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur, whose
Ottawa-Vanier riding includes Mr. Bedard's ward.

A former city councillor for the area herself, Ms. Meilleur says it's
time to undo some of the "concentration" of social services in
Lowertown, the ByWard Market and Sandy Hill. They attract too many
clients to one part of town, she says, exacerbating the drug trade,
prostitution and petty crime. Furthermore, she says, predators impede
people trying to pull themselves together. It's bad to have Operation
Go Home, which aims to help teens living on or just above the
streets, on a road like Murray Street, where drugs are so easy to
get, the argument goes.

There's something to this. Storefronts and offices taken up by social
agencies are spaces not used by merchants and accountants and
restaurants and lawyers doing productive work. The effect is
magnified when an area has other problems, such as derelict buildings
and bad urban design. Some of the blocks off King Edward Avenue in
Lowertown are in rough shape, for instance, and more shelters aren't
what most planners would recommend to revive them.

But these are often problems, at the scale of a city block and
sometimes smaller. Restricting social services in whole parts of town
(Mr. Bedard talks about large districts -- Overbrook, Westboro -- and
he got city council to pass a blanket prohibition on new shelters in
Rideau-Vanier) is overkill.

Most shelters and other services are where they are for a reason:
they've moved in hoping to be close to people who are already nearby
and need help. There's a reason Operation Go Home doesn't look for
cheap space in a suburban office park, and if you're a kid
panhandling on Rideau Street, even Bronson Avenue might as well be Orleans.

People who make their livings on the street, by whatever means, go
where the density and the prosperity are. Most will give up on
getting help before they walk or cadge rides to the places that
provide it, which is why many service providers oppose Ms. Meilleur's
and Mr. Bedard's idea.

The worst thing that could happen from this is that we forget how
short Ottawa really is on help for many people who truly need it. We
need more drug treatment centres with more doctors and nurses, more
treatment for people so mentally ill they can barely function, and
more supportive housing that helps the addicted and sick get better.

These services must be located with care, but not reluctance.