DESPITE SOME CLAIMS, HOOKERS ARE STILL HERE

The addicts, prostitutes and johns in the vicinity of the Pauline/Homeview
cross streets have decreased, according to Abbotsford Mayor Mary Reeves.
"According to the reports I get from the downtown businesses, the problem
down there has subsided since last year," she said.

But if you ask the girls working the street corners, like Terry, an addict
of 37 years, or Penny, who is finally off heroin but not everything else,
they would tell you a different story.

"We have a big problem down here but no one wants to admit it," said Ella
Thomaser, a prostitute who can earn $200 to $500 a night to support her
drug habit. She has worked the streets of Abbotsford regularly since 1995.
She indicates there are more than 70 addicts and approximately 20 full-time
prostitutes in Abbotsford.

The constant surveillance by the police beat team provides protection for
individuals but the drug users and sex trade workers "will never go away,"
according to Capt. Dave Denault, director of Streethope Abbotsford, a
ministry of Church Army in Canada.

"Having the cops down here is a great service, there's no doubt about
that," but what the addicts need "is a combined effort by the recovery
houses and the community churches - and we need a detox centre in this
city," Denault told the Times.

Last year the condemned Birch Manor on the corner of Pauline Street and
McDougal was purchased by the city and torn down. This meant many homeless
people no longer had a place to crash and pressures from the community
forced them to disperse.

"It didn't get rid of them," said Denault. "It displaced them but it didn't
get rid of them."

And a walk through Jubilee Park is still no party. Paranoid addicts begin
to scurry, hiding their stash and men with biceps the size of watermelons
cast deep, long stares.

Nothing has changed.

"We're still here trying to help these people," said Denault. "If anything
the problem has gotten bigger."

Cheri Newman, assistant manager at Life Recovery in Abbotsford, is also
helping out. She agrees with having the beat cops in the area because it
makes it difficult for girls to work, which means they make less money, get
less dope and maybe want to get off the streets because of it, she
explained. But she stresses the importance of having a detox centre in
Abbotsford.

"I don't agree with the harm reduction sites [safe places to do drugs] like
they're doing in Vancouver but we definitely need a detox centre," she said.

The Abbotsford coalition for crime prevention and drug treatment propose a
non-medical detox centre to help young teenage girls but said a "medical
detox centre is just too expensive," according to Abbotsford councillor Ed
Fast, who sits on the coalition board.

A medical detox centre would have to be funded by the provincial government.

"A detox centre is the most important social priority right now because
dependency causes people to commit violent crimes," said Coun. Simon
Gibson. "But it's a provincial responsibility and it needs consistent
leadership by our MLAs."