DOWNTOWN SLUM OR DESTINATION?

Historic downtown Abbotsford will deteriorate into an area like downtown
eastside of Vancouver if a Sally Ann proposal on Cyril Street goes ahead,
says the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association.

Business owners believe the downtown heart has the potential to beat with
new life like Fort Langley or Gastown, if not for an unhealthy high
concentration of service agencies in this area.

Salvation Army supporters counter that their proposed new shelter for
transients and recovering drug addicts and alcoholics will help clean up
the downtown and bring the services to the people who most need them.

There was sharp disagreement during an intense three-hour public hearing
Monday about the Salvation Army's proposal to build low-cost housing and a
bridge house for nine recovering addicts and a temporary shelter for 12
transients at its Care and Share Centre on Cyril Street.

The church is seeking a variance on the current C-5 (commercial) zoning of
a building that is zoned as a shopping mall.

Passionate arguments were presented on both sides of the issue. After
discussion and debate for almost an hour, council voted to postpone making
a final decision on the Salvation Army request for 30 days.

In the meantime, a committee will explore other possible locations for the
project, including a site in the Bradner area, council decided.

About 120 people attended the hearing with some 30 speakers presenting
arguments that were split about evenly in favour and in opposition.
Historic downtown Abbotsford is at a turning point, said shop owners. Drug
dealers, pimps and hookers on the streets are creating "a cesspool"
downtown - and many are attracted to the area, because of the Salvation
Army's soup kitchen, for example, said John Parker of the National Training
Centre.

He noted that Homestead Nurseries, which was located beside the Salvation
Army soup kitchen, was forced to move because of a shocking increase in
break-and-enters, and used needles and condoms found in the parking lot.
According to Parker, the final straw for Homestead was finding a drug
addict passed out in a customer's car.

He said the location for the new Sally Ann project on Cyril Street is
completely wrong and has already created a social "catastrophe" in
downtown. The National Training Centre has seen a dramatic decline in
walk-in customer business during the past two years, he said.

Bob Bos, president of the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association, said
business owners will start selling their properties in downtown if the new
Sally Ann proposal is approved.

Downtown Abbotsford will be like Vancouver's downtown eastside, if the area
around the Salvation Army's Harbour Lights facility is any indication, said
Bos.

Harbour Lights is surrounded by blocks of boarded-up buildings and closed
businesses as the taxpaying businesses were forced out by the clientele of
the Salvation Army, said Bos.

A Tim Horton's outlet was considering opening at the old Feltrin's property
(at Essendene and Gladys), but it didn't move ahead because of uncertainty
about the future of the area, he said.

Most of the speakers, including the business owners, heartily praised the
efforts of the Salvation Army, regardless of their position on this proposal.

Roy Carver, an east Abbotsford resident, said the Salvation Army developed
a fine transient house in Penticton, near the bus depot and it "spruced up"
the area.

"If anyone can bring about a positive change, it's the Salvation Army,"
said Carver.

Ken Hyette, director of Miracle Valley, warned council that the upper
Fraser Valley is "the drug trading hub of B.C." and the city cannot
legislate the problem away.

Andy Rowe, a former drug addict, said there are 30 cars doing shift work in
the city doing drug deliveries.

He is clean and has two children and has a full-time job helping addicts
through Full Circle Ministries. He said Abbotsford is a scary place to
raise children.

"I believe there's a 55 per cent higher chance of getting hooked on drugs
here than anywhere else. We're the drug hub of the Fraser Valley," he said.
If it's war on the drug culture, then the city council needs soldiers - and
those soldiers are in the Salvation Army, he said.

Gary Johnston, Lower Mainland spokesman for the Salvation Army, said
emergency shelters serve as a gateway for people to get help up the ladder.
"If we're not there to help - who is going to do it?" he emphasized.

Nelson Drozdovich, an Abbotsford resident, said the public must recognize
that the problems in downtown have been there for more than 35 years.

Major Toni Cartmell, of the Salvation Army, said the church's ministry
needs to be where the people are in order to be a beacon of hope for their
community and for the lost.

Basically, the location is ideal to rescue people struggling with the
street drug culture, explained Cartmell.

The issue will be on the council's agenda again in one month.