CRACK ATTACK

Point Douglas Residents Try To Push Dealers Out

Alena Feldman knows what it's like to have a house of horrors in the
neighbourhood.

Until one month ago, the Point Douglas resident and mother of two
lived in fear of the crack house next door.

She and her husband found needles in their backyard, dodged raw
sewage dumped onto their sidewalk and cleaned up garbage thrown onto
their side of the fence.

Then the Point Douglas Residents Committee took action and -- with
the help of police and the provincial government -- shut the
ramshackle operation down.

Last night Feldman was one of nearly 200 residents, government
officials and community builders who gathered at Joe Zuken Park at
the corner of Euclid Avenue and Grove Street to launch the Make Point
Douglas a Crack-free Zone campaign, which takes aim at crack dealers
robbing area youth of their futures.

'Deserves To Be Safe'

"It's a problem that's all over the city, but it's so much more
visible here," Feldman said. "It definitely deserves to be safe, for
the kids and for us and for everybody."

As the program stands, so-called "anonymous community safety
representatives" keep their eyes open for crack houses and report
them to the committee, which in turn forwards the information to the
authorities.

The drug house next to Feldman's place is one of 10 that have been
closed since community members began feeding tips to city cops and
provincial bureaucrats in June.

Some 14 more are already on the group's radar.

But committee chair Sel Burrows says there are so many more steps
that need to be taken to ensure children are given every opportunity
to thrive in the area that's become notorious for its drug operations.

He said too many are becoming drug runners simply because there's
nothing more for them to do.

"The big dealers may be hard to reach, but the kids don't need to be
going to jail for them," Burrows said yesterday. "The problem is
they're not bad kids, they're in an environment that could be better.
If they lived in any other neighbourhood, they'd be on the football team."

Though he admits more programming is needed, Burrows said the
community is getting "great support" from those in power.

Even Winnipeg Blue Bomber slotback Milt Stegall showed up last night
to encourage area residents to not give up.

"You can't just sit back and say 'Someone else is going to do it,'"
said Stegall, whose mother-in-law battled an on-and-off crack
addition from age 16.

"It's not going to be an easy task, but if the people in the
community stick together the drug dealers and the drug users aren't
going to be able to do it forever. They'll be able to take their
community back."