HIDING IN THE SHADOWS

Kelowna's City Park is a magnet for young families and the homeless, and
both seem to be co-existing for the moment. But police worry about the
potential for violence problems if the number of homeless drug users that
seek a place to sleep in the park continues to increase.

The Rose Garden in City Park is an attraction unto itself. It's a popular
spot for wedding photographs or for tourists to snap a colourful picture to
capture their visit.

It's also one of the few areas of the park where the foliage and shade is
sufficient for a few moments of privacy for drug users or an elevated spot
for a good night's sleep above the damp ground.

But the two visitors are mutually exclusive of each other; you won't find
the photographers and the sleepers in the same place.

Like City Park, the rose garden fills the nearly impossible role of being
everything to everyone, petal or thorn.

She isn't used to being called by her proper name. It takes three attempts
by Const. A.J. (Al) MacKinnon--who calls her Nicole--before she notices.

She is walking away from Leon Avenue to the alley behind the Gospel
Mission, pushing a grocery cart overflowing with various belongings. It's a
difficult task, not because she has too much stuff, but because one wheel
is askew.

It rolls only on its edge, mostly being dragged as it fights the momentum
of the other three wheels.

Once she sees MacKinnon and realizes he wants her attention, she stamps her
foot, curses and mentions something to her friend.

Nicky, as she refers to herself often in the third person, tells McKinnon
that she has been off crack cocaine for three weeks. Even to the
inexperienced observer, it is surely a tall tale.

She can barely open her eyes. Her hands rove her body, through her hair,
sometimes scratching, other times just for occupation. She bobs in a
rhythmic motion like singer Ray Charles at a piano.

MacKinnon believes her story because he has seen her much worse. He says
she appears to be improving.

She came to Kelowna two years ago from Saskatoon, Sask., she says. She and
her boyfriend followed each other here, hand in hand, ostensibly to be
closer to his children, albeit farther away from her own three children.

She says she was clean before she came here and claims to be trying again.

"I am fine doing crack," she says, with frenetic over-explanation from her
hands. "It moderates my chemical imbalance. I think rational but when sleep
deprivation kicks in, it makes me all antsy. It looks funny on the street."

That was how MacKinnon saw her last, walking down the street waving her
arms, shouting at no one, fighting with shadows.

"They shouldn't call it crack cocaine," she says. "They should call it More."

"More" has exacted a definite toll on Nicky. Her teeth are cracked and dark
or missing altogether. Her skin looks as if stained by tea. She has large,
angry welts about her body, open sores removed of their skin, partially
scabbed over. But that isn't a result of drug use, she says.

They're spider bites.

"City Park is full of them," she says.

Around March, concern began to grow about what appeared to be a growing
homeless problem congregating downtown, but police say it actually began
sometime last winter.

While Kelowna has never been immune to such urban frustrations, lately our
city seems to have attracted more than its share of street life, however it
may be defined.

No one seems to have an answer for why Kelowna, and more specifically City
Park, is such a popular choice, but the growing trade in drugs is surely
enough to keep them here.

Aaron is a friend of Nicole's. He says he came to Kelowna from Port
Coquitlam a few months ago. He says he's homeless between sporadic stops on
someone else's couch. He has no real explanation for how he ended up here;
he landed here and stayed.

He still carries his belongings in a bag slung over his shoulder and
doesn't show the weight of his burden that Nicole does. He hasn't graduated
to the shopping cart just yet.

He spends some nights at the Gospel Mission, other nights wherever he can
find a spot. He can be found during the day sometimes sleeping under the
shade trees of City Park.

He was a weekend warrior back home, he says, but his drug use--cocaine--has
grown to more regular use. He recalls spending between $300 and $600 on
drugs in a weekend. Now he has to find other ways to get money.

"Mostly I middle for it," he says. "If someone needs something I get it for
them and either pinch from their bag or get paid for it."

Some dealers have incentive plans either torn straight from the Amway
Corporation or vice versa. Every half gram he sells can earn five bucks for
dope and he can bank up his sales for greater product discounts.

It's one way to be sure Aaron will always be back for more.

It's 38 C and summer hasn't even started. A typical walk along the
promenade in City Park finds kids swimming off a dock within view of the
Kelowna Yacht Club.

Passive solicitation of wares or services greets visitors in a narrow strip
of an outdoor market. It's a choice location for a leisurely bike ride or
roller-blade, or sandy beaches for volleyball, all within reach of the
water or a picnic table under the shade.

The children's water park is one of a precious few free resources for kids
to beat back the heat.

It all takes place in the same park where strung-out drug users exercise
their habits and while away the day.

With few exceptions, the families that play here say they are not bothered
by the neighbours in the shade. Corinne Gooch, 29, says she is wary of them
but not to the point of not using the park.

"For me it is more the paraphernalia," she says. "It is pretty sad when you
have to tell your three- and five-year-old what to watch for on the ground.
They know to watch out for needles."

She says the number of people living to some degree in the park appears to
have grown, which raises her concern.

As peaceable as their co-existence appears, it is not entirely true.
Complaints taken by Kelowna RCMP tell a different story.

Despite a nearly constant presence by foot- and bike-patrols, complaints
about crime in City Park are up this year.

Most are for aggressive panhandling and squeegee kids, drug paraphernalia,
and drug use in the public washrooms. But lately there have been more
serious crimes. A woman was recently mugged, another had her purse
snatched, one young man claimed to have had his bike stolen.

Cpl. Reg Burgess, in charge of community policing for Kelowna detachment,
acknowledges that fear of crime may not be based in fact. But fear of crime
is a beast all its own and cannot be ignored.

"A lot of the drug users keep their own company and look to be with other
users," he says. "But there is always the fear of them potentially
resorting to some violent crime."

He says the families that do share the park might not be the best example
of the stigma being built. The families who fear crime in the park just
aren't there.

He points to Kelowna's greying population as an example.

"How often do you see a senior citizen in the park?" he says.

Police officers walking or riding through the park don't approach everyone
the same way. Crystal meth, or Kim as it is sometimes called, can produce a
very cranky and volatile user. The smart cop will be wary.

When complaints come in about a regular named Jeremy, Consts. MacKinnon and
Jo Anne Ruppenthal know exactly who they are dealing with. He has a
reputation for being combative with nearly everyone.

The word on the street is he believed he was a knight with special powers
in his belt. A former girlfriend warns the officers how violent he can be
towards anyone, including his friends and providers of food and shelter at
the Gospel Mission.

The cops spot him walking across a street and he yells something at them,
like a bear warding off a rival.

His voice gets louder the closer the officers get, and finally erupts into
a spitting, swearing machine, struggling and resisting as he is arrested on
a warrant for trafficking in crack cocaine, breaching probation and assault.

He curses at police and anyone who happens to glance his way, making out as
if he will strike out at them.

His surly mood continued three days later, this time in a courtroom when he
erupted and loudly dismissed his lawyer.

Brought forward a second time, he tried to fire the two Crown prosecutors
who want to convict him.

Const. MacKinnon asks Nicky if Kelowna has a homeless problem and, if so,
how to fix it. At first it seems a ridiculous question, like querying the
gun about crime prevention and expecting an answer.

Ruppenthal doesn't think so. Nicky may be a harbinger of the problem but
she still has an opinion, still wants to be heard, and Ruppenthal says her
answer is probably as good as any she's heard.

"We just need a place to go," Nicky says. "We need something co-ed where I
can stay with my hubby. Like KSS (the vacant old Kelowna secondary school
gymnasium) where we can be safe and come and go as we please."

It's not an outlandish idea. For all her demons, she still has an eye on
how to make things better for those around her.

"Extra policing is not really needed," she offers. "Tourists probably feel
a little more comfortable but the problem is the crack heads are too sloppy
and scaring the tourists so it comes to someone like me to tell them,`Hey
look, smarten up.'"

Do you think you scare off tourists, she is asked.

"No, I help a lot of tourists. I make sure things are all cleaned up around
here. The difference between me and most others is I have more couth. The
only uncouth time I had was yellin' at my old man. There is only so much I
can take with him."

Her husband, as she calls him, is back in jail. She says in a way that's a
good thing because she doesn't have to support him.

"When Nicky was selling her ass, home always came first. On average, I need
a hundred, a hundred-fifty maybe more because I supported two people on drugs.

"If we had back all the money we spent on drugs, we would have a mansion
right now."

This wouldn't be the first time it was suggested that the Gospel Mission
should find a new home out of downtown.

The growth of the homeless population has meant financial ruin for several
businesses trying to make a living as neighbour to the Mission on Leon Avenue.

Employees working in the various professional offices there have seen it
all, from prostitution to drug use and fighting.

But, like many park visitors, they say they haven't personally been bothered.

The Downtown Kelowna Association thinks the Mission could find a more
appropriate spot and it has some Kelowna RCMP support as well.

Cpl. Burgess says the drug users and dealers who mix with the down-and-out
have the effect of crowding what the public might know as homeless.

The mentally ill or depressed, typically the silent shopping cart pushers,
aren't doing anything wrong. They keep to themselves and for the most part
aren't committing crimes to feed a habit. At the Gospel Mission, it's the
passive homeless who are often the first victims.

Burgess says moving the Mission might separate them.

That will help the hungry get the help they need and allow police to target
the aggressive panhandlers, the opportunistic thieves, pimps, dealers and
finally, the end users making a home in the park.

Brenda fits somewhere in between. Suffering from serious mental illness,
she was eventually exposed to crystal meth and it made her problems
infinitely worse.

She could pass for late 40s--no one would guess she is only 32. She is
picked up by police on a Mental Health Act warrant.

They found her on the east end of Leon after complaints of aggressive
panhandling.

She was yelling at someone on the street. She has blood caked around sores
on her nose.

The cops are careful because she's also been known to relieve herself in
public.

She is admitted directly to the psychiatric ICU at Kelowna General Hospital
where a padded room awaits her.

She will get back on her regular course of medication and stabilize before
she can be released.

Just eight days later, she reappears in City Park amid the crowd of hard
core drug users; the only difference appears to be a clean outfit of clothing.

Bob and Marj Coles, both senior citizens, have been coming to City Park for
10 years. They know the terrain well, and where not to pitch their lawn chairs.

The shade of the big trees nearest the Abbott Street entrance during the
day is almost exclusive domain for the unpredictable, where remaining
stationary is an invitation for trouble.

Still, the Coles say they have never felt at risk in the park.

"I guess it is getting to be a bigger problem but the police appear to be
responding," Bob says. "We've been here an hour and 20 minutes and we saw
two policemen on foot and a police van just went by and there was one
earlier. Three patrols."

That's exactly what the police want to hear. Since the fall, they have
increased foot and bike patrols in the area. They watch for suspicious
activity and query nearly everyone, ensuring they aren't drunk or high in
public, search for warrants and check for drug paraphernalia. There are no
shortages of home-made crack pipes.

Their presence is as much a warning to users that they are looking for drug
activity as it is about letting the Coles know they are paying attention.

"We need the families there because the more of that family activity is
going on, the less welcome the dealers and others trying to live under a
tree are going to feel," Burgess says.

There's nothing wrong with them being in the park. It's a public space with
an open invitation. The challenge is finding a balance between the
visitors, ensuring that one doesn't push out the other.

In four hours, MacKinnon and Ruppenthal find three crack pipes in the park.
They arrest one person for being drunk in a public place, another on an
outstanding warrant.

They face the usual accusations of harassment; few seem to recognize it's a
job they are doing. That job hasn't changed much in the last 30 years.
Police have always patrolled the park to varying degrees.

Where once they were checking for open liquor and public intoxication, now
they check for signs of crack cocaine or Crystal meth.

The officers make their fourth pass through the park. They are like stones
to a flock of seagulls; everyone scatters as they approach the little camps.

They continue to check people sleeping. They want to ensure their safety as
much as anyone else's.

Then they find Nicole again.She hardly reacts to her name. She rolls over,
exposing a crack pipe. There's a small orange needle visible in her bag.

Nicole isn't here anymore; Nicky is back.

She is splayed out in the grass, sleeping.

The leg of her pyjamas is up over her knee exposing more angry red welts to
match those on her face and arms.

Too many spiders.