FORUM A FIRST STEP TOWARD HELP FOR HOMELESS, ADDICTED

Meeting Held To Seek Consensus, Solutions

Langley is taking its first steps toward solving its growing homeless
and drug problems.

Langley MP Mark Warawa hosted a forum Wednesday evening, bringing
together key people in the community at the Murrayville fire hall.

"We will meet again in three weeks to implement a plan. Tonight I
want to reach a consensus of what we can do to make Langley safe,"
said Warawa to the group, which included both Langley mayors, school
board chair Steve Burton, fire chiefs and bylaw officers.

The forum also brought out members of Langley RCMP's drug section and
crime prevention unit, along with new chief, Supt. Janice Armstrong,
who brings her expertise from Maple Ridge, the first community to
start up a multi-faceted crystal meth watch program.

Also in attendance was the Salvation Army, a treatment centre staff
member, Langley Memorial Hospital's health services, school district
and community services reps, including Langley Youth and Family
Services and Stepping Stones.

While the forum was called to get a community drug task force going
in Langley, it was quickly learned that a homeless shelter is the
largest priority, followed by getting detox or a treatment centre in Langley.

"I have noticed such an increase in homeless," said the City's only
bylaw officer Patty Gilfillan. "The first thing I do in the morning
is remove the homeless from requests by merchants. It used to be one
or two, now its camps of five or 10 people with everything they own.
I'm just moving them from one place to another."

Township Mayor Kurt Alberts is concerned with what a shelter can
bring to a community. He told the forum that he's spoken to mayors
and other politicians in other communities who said the situation
only gets worse once a shelter opens because crime goes up, with
loitering, open drug use and a collection of homeless from other communities.

"It has to be a comprehensive approach," warned Alberts about
bringing a shelter here.

Salvation Army envoy Gary Johnson explained that the shelter would
act as a gateway to detox, treatment, employment and counseling, not
just a building to house the homeless.

Health Services head Leanne Heppell, who just arrived at Langley
Memorial Hospital in June from managing Vancouver General's
emergency, was surprised to see Langley has the same drug addiction issues.

"We particularly don't do a good job with the homeless. We don't have
a system set up for that or for addictions," said Heppell.

With a bed crunch and a medical system based on getting patients out
as quickly as possible, there is no time to deal with the homeless
and addicts, let alone follow-up with them.

Those who come in are just as quickly sent away.

Many crystal meth users are coming into LMH with open sores and
infections, she said.

"Crystal meth is a huge issue. What we see is the brain damage. What
we don't have is a system set up for people with brain damage, let
alone from crystal meth."

From the school district's perspective, educating parents and
students about the harms of drug addiction is the key.

Many parents just aren't aware of what their kids are doing.

"If we could prevent 12-year-old girls from using then we wouldn't
have 30-year-old women living under our bridges now," said Burton.

The impact of drug addiction is devastating to the business
community, said Bev Dornan, president of the Greater Langley Chamber
of Commerce.

"The impact of shoplifting is enormous," said Dornan, who said she
speaks from experience working at Otter Co-op.

Township senior bylaw officer Bill Storie said it's key to define
homelessness, because the squatters he is dealing with in the
Township are nothing more than low-level criminals.

"We just spent seven days removing low level crime transients.

"They chose not to get help and wouldn't use a shelter," said Storie.

He added that the neighbours of these transients are suffering from
property crime and fear, and all that can be done is to move these
people along.

"I had nearly 100 neighbours come and thank me after we removed those
people in Willoughby," he said.

For the next meeting, City Mayor Peter Fassbender asked the Salvation
Army for a business plan to be prepared, detailing what square
footage is needed for a shelter.

He also asked the school district to prepare a business plan
detailing how they intend to create awareness for children and parents.