Stanley / New Fountain ( 36
Blood Alley Square )
This has to be the creepiest most unlawful places I have ever to sleep.
VANCOUVER – An unprecedented partnership between the Province, the City of Vancouver and the private sector will provide $1.5 million to create up to 200 temporary shelter beds in three locations for people who are homeless in Vancouver.
“Providing warm, safe shelter for every British Columbian facing the prospect of a night on the streets in harsh winter weather is a priority for all of us,” said Premier Gordon Campbell. “Through shelters, we can connect homeless persons with other services, supports and permanent housing opportunities. We welcome this partnership with the new mayor and council to work together to break the cycle of homelessness.”
Each partner will provide $500,000 to fund temporary overnight shelter beds for the next 90 days. The three locations are distributed across the city at Stanley / New Fountain (36 Blood Alley Square), 240 Northern Street and 1442 Howe Street. Once these locations are operational, the need for additional spaces will be evaluated.
“Since homelessness is the top priority of this council, we are taking immediate action to get people off the street and into a safe, warm environment,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson, City of Vancouver. “We recognize the value of leveraging partnerships with the Province and the private sector to create much-needed shelter.”
This short-term response complements other provincial housing strategies already underway in Vancouver, including the purchase and renovation of 17 single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels, the development of over 1,400 new affordable housing units on 14 city sites, 687 beds funded through the Emergency Shelter Program, and 498 beds provided through the Extreme Weather Response program.
“We are pleased to partner with the Province and the City of Vancouver to provide temporary shelters to people who need it most,” said John McLernon, chair of the Streetohome Foundation. “This partnership supports the mandate of the foundation to help people get off the street and into safe affordable housing.”
This is what it was like:
Police are investigating a string of bizarre attacks in the Downtown Eastside where female addicts are tortured and their heads shaved for not paying drug debts.
Police say the violence began six months ago and has occurred at several low-end hotels, including a facility run by the taxpayer-funded Downtown Eastside Residents Association.
"This has become a house of horrors -- it's a crack house," said Insp. John McKay, referring to DERA's Marie Gomez facility at the corner of Princess and Alexander streets.
"These girls are being tortured. They are being raped, beaten and their heads shaved. Often they cut them up in the process.
"This is social housing and it's absolutely deplorable."
Sgt. Joanne Boyle of the Downtown Eastside's beat enforcement team alerted prostitutes' advocates to the crisis earlier this year.
"Officers were checking on women whose heads had been brutally shaved using disposable razors," Boyle said. "It's become the new way for dealers to do business."
Police have half a dozen reports of head-shaving. But Boyle said women turning up in wigs -- and being too scared to come forward -- hide the real numbers.
So far, Boyle said, one man has been charged in relation to a "torturous unlawful confinement."
The victim has been relocated out of province by police.
Boyle said police have videotaped statements from women who have been tortured for drug debts. They have persuaded only one to co-operate.
"They are simply too terrified to press charges," she said.
Kim Kerr, DERA's executive-director, denied women at Marie Gomez are abused.
Kerr said he has never seen a woman in the Downtown Eastside with her head shaved.
"Any violence against women is of huge concern for us and I constantly monitor this," Kerr said.
"We have never seen a woman in the Downtown Eastside walking around with half her head shaved."
But Kate Gibson of the Women's Information and Safe House drop-in centre for prostitutes said head-shaving is an emerging problem.
"You can see it on the street," Gibson said.
"Women have strips taken out of their hair all over the place. It seems to have emerged recently -- it's become much more obvious.
"It's thought to be related to drug debts. If they have a debt and don't pay it, then they are punished and they won't be able to work. They are publicly humiliated and they can't buy drugs from anybody else. It's marking."
Ninna Snider, whose family owns a rooming house close to Marie Gomez, said the DERA facility has gone downhill in the past three years.
"I've worked here all my life and I won't walk past that building any more," Snider said.
"It's not safe -- I'll be spat on or something will be tossed out the window at me.
"It's unbelievable the number of times emergency services turn up there."
In 2005, police were called to Marie Gomez 230 times, the fire department 80 times and paramedics 100 times.
The building, with 76 self-contained units, is owned by the federal government and has been operated by DERA since 1989. It was closed in October 2002 because of mould.
Kerr reopened it in July 2003 for "hard-to-house" tenants, people with mental-health, addiction and other medical problems.
Three months later, police raided the facility after two drug gangs took over some tenants' rooms and threatened DERA staff.
Kerr said Marie Gomez has 24-hour security and charges $325 a month for rooms. Most low-cost hotels in the area charge $350.
"I am confident of what I'm doing at Marie Gomez and I will stand firm on that building for as long as I'm executive-director," Kerr said.
"I'm sorry if its a distraction to the business community and police, but, frankly, there are people in there dying [of AIDS] and I'm more interested in people than greedy business owners wanting to gentrify the community."
McKay said the police do not want Marie Gomez closed, adding DERA's other housing facilities are relatively well run.
"I don't care about gentrification," McKay said. "What I care about is that people living in there are safe and they are anything but. There is no safety or security for these people."
He said dealers are again taking over tenants' rooms in the building.
Last week, police raided one room and found 200 grams of crack cocaine and a large number of heroin flaps.
dcarrigg@png.canwest.com
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911 CALLS
Emergency services are making a massive number of calls to Downtown Eastside hotels.
According to Vancouver police records, police were called out 500 times during 2005 to the 45-room Roosevelt Hotel, near the corner of Main and Hastings streets. The fire department was called 200 times and ambulance services 700 times.
The City of Vancouver-owned 103-room Stanley New Fountain Hotel in Gastown was visited by police 400 times, the fire department 40 times and ambulance services 80 times in 2005.
An audit of 54 Downtown Eastside hotels is expected to be released in the fall.
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=3d680bc4-6a24-48e3-9a30-c781329e5dd8&k=9350
