EAST SIDE NEIGHBOURHOOD 'FALLING TO PIECES'

In just 45 minutes Tuesday, two workers from an East Side aboriginal centre
picked up 139 spent syringes within a two-block radius of their building.

Normally, Jacqualene Worrall and Kelly Donan of the Aboriginal Mother
Centre Society at Wall and Dundas streets collect about 40 syringes a day
in a sweep of the neighbourhood.

"We couldn't believe it," said Donan, an outreach worker who has picked up
syringes for almost two years. "It's getting a lot worse around here, and
people are getting really mad about this."

Evidence of that anger is plastered in black spray paint across a white
brick wall next to the aboriginal centre. The graffiti reads, "All you
crack heads can hurry up and die!"

Crack cocaine, heroin and marijuana are prevalent in the neighbourhood.
Recent police busts in the area, particularly at the Dundas Hotel two
blocks up the street, are evidence of the drug problem. To combat it,
Vancouver police make regular visits to the Dundas, a rooming house
officers attended 80 times last year to investigate a variety of crimes,
including drug dealing and assaults. As the Courier reported two weeks ago,
the owner of the Dundas Hotel is trying to rid his building of dealers,
with the help of police and the city.

Police are also targeting an apartment building at 2178 Triumph St.,where
they've seized drugs, weapons and two-way radios. Police also suspect a
rooming house at 1889 Triumph St. of drug activity.

Worrall, a child care worker, and Donan believe police pressure on the
buildings has forced addicts, prostitutes and dealers on to the streets.
That was evident Wednesday afternoon when the two women escorted the
Courier through the neighbourhood.

The most desperate scene was behind the vacant Canasoy building at Lakewood
and Dundas, where three people were lying in a garbage-strewn loading bay
smoking crack.

The shrubs and hedges surrounding the building are popular spots for
prostitutes to service customers, said Worrall, noting she often sees men
pulling their pants up as she passes the building on her way to work.

"It's really sad. I see these young pretty girls coming down here, and a
few months later they don't look anything like they did-scabs on their
faces and stuff."

When the two women returned to the centre, they pointed out an area near
the entrance where they recently picked up 14 blood-filled syringes. This
is where mothers and children have to walk to get into the building.

"When we tell [the addicts] that children come here, they don't seem to
care," Worrall said.

Evidence of the violence in the neighbourhood was witnessed Thursday by
Courier photographer Dan Toulgoet. Toulgoet said he saw a man with a
baseball bat chasing another man, believed to be a drug addict.

"I didn't see anybody get hit, but I saw another man with blood on his face
who was connected to these guys," he said. "I wasn't sure what was going on."

Penny Kerrigan, the aboriginal centre's executive director, regularly
witnesses drug activity unfolding on the street from her office window,
which overlooks Dundas Street.

Kerrigan said the increase in drug activity began almost two years ago,
around the same time police started cracking down on drug dealers in the
Main and Hastings area.

When the aboriginal centre opened four years ago, there was no noticeable
drug problem in the neighbourhood, Kerrigan said. She noted her staff
doesn't get paid to pick up syringes, but said it's necessary to prevent
people from getting hurt.

"There are a lot of kids in this neighbourhood. It's not safe for them or
their families. We want the neighbourhood back to what it was like a few
years ago."

The aboriginal centre, which provides services such as hot meals,
counselling and literacy programs for mothers and kids, also caters to
drug-addicted women, some of whom are HIV-positive prostitutes.

Kerrigan said staff constantly remind the prostitutes to properly dispose
of their syringes in containers. It's a reminder she would like heard by
other addicts who are littering the neighbourhood with syringes. "It seems
like our neighbourhood is falling to pieces."

The aboriginal centre wants to be part of the solution to clean up the
neighbourhood, said Kerrigan, noting the city recently approved a $25,000
grant to help hire a neighbourhood liaison coordinator. The person's job
will involve organizing businesses and residents to develop what Kerrigan
calls a neighbourhood action coalition to address crime and safety concerns.

Although she is glad the owner of the Dundas is cleaning up his hotel, and
that police are targeting dealers in the neighbourhood, Kerrigan said
neighbours must organize to get their voices heard by politicians.

"It's not something that's going to happen overnight, but we have to
getting working on this."

Insp. Bob Rolls, police commander for the area, agreed the increase in the
number of syringes in the streets is likely related to police pressure on
the buildings. Although the number seems high, Rolls said it will probably
drop as police continue to keep a presence in the area. Rolls likened the
increase in drug activity on the streets to bees buzzing around after their
nest has been poked with a stick.

"There's always some short term pain with this kind of [police action]," he
said.

Robert Durrant, who lives across the street from the aboriginal centre in a
renovated condominium complex, stopped in the neighbourhood's policing
centre on Wall Street Wednesday to complain about two drug dealers.

"I observe [drug dealing] everyday, and something has to be done. We phone
911 all the time," he said. "We should really have more police out there
before things really get out of hand."