Governments usually like to say there is no quick fix to the problems of poverty, drug addiction and homelessness in the country's inner cities and downtown cores. Vancouver, however, seems to think it has found a solution. It's called the Olympics.
British Columbia has made a massive investment in cash and resources over the past few years in an effort to clean up the face of despair in the Downtown Eastside before the world comes to town for the Winter Olympics in February 2010. The city is investing in social and supportive housing, mental health facilities and treatment programs for addicts -- all the things Winnipeg needs, but apparently can't afford.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is so confident in the results that he is predicting that the Downtown Eastside will soon be a normal neighbourhood, free of the panhandlers, addicts, mentally ill and homeless people that now scar district.
The latest weapon in Vancouver's war against destitution and petty crime is a new Eastside community court that will open in two weeks. The only one of its kind in Canada, the court will be integrated with health and social services to deal with people who plead guilty to minor offences, such as theft, assault and drug possession. The goal is to help offenders get assistance by sentencing them to time in a treatment centre, a supportive housing group or even banishing them from the neighbourhood. The concept has worked in other countries and the presiding judge, Thomas Gove, said he hopes the Eastside will be crime free by the time the Olympics open.
These are lofty promises and the methods and results may turn out to be controversial, particularly if it is perceived that the court is a legalized way of cleaning the streets of human debris, whose presence might embarrass politicians during the Olympics.
On the other hand, the attitude in many cities, including Winnipeg, seems to be that poverty and crime are permanent fixtures that can only be moderated, not eliminated. The City of Winnipeg has spent millions of dollars buying and closing derelict hotels, while fortunes have been spent on monuments, such as the MTS Centre, without making the slightest improvement in the lives of the people who struggle every day in the core area. The focus needs to turn to helping those people directly, even in cities that don't have an Olympics to justify the effort.
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