DOWNTOWN SEES SPIKE IN DISORDER
Down-and-out people are gathering in construction zones, but there is hope
There’s long been an uneasy relationship between panhandlers and the homeless downtown and those who own condos and work there, but in the past year things have deteriorated, says Ian O’Donnell, executive director of the Downtown Business Association and a downtown resident for 15 years.
More disruption. More graffiti. More vandalism. More aggressive behaviour. More mental health issues. More crime. More fear.
O’Donnell has seen these negative trends reflected in crime statistics, but a few firsthand incidents spurred him to action this week, convening a well-attended public discussion on what to do about downtown disorder on Thursday.
In one instance, O’Donnell described how he was following another downtown resident, a young woman, out of an LRT, when they came upon a group on the stairs, blocking the way out. The young woman turned around at once, but O’Donnell confronted the group.
“I went up and said, ‘You guys can’t just block this.’ And they became very aggressive. Of course, I’m not Superman so I actually had to turn around and go back down ... I thought to myself, ‘What if you were a visitor and you were going up to your hotel? What if that was my sister walking late at night?’ That is not what downtown Edmonton is all about. It really bothered me.”
Others at the meeting had similar stories.
Cory Wosnack, managing director of Avison Young realtors, said he’d been showing off some downtown properties to a local businesswoman from the suburbs.
She was thinking of moving several hundred people to a downtown office, but after seeing the amount of street people and panhandling, and having one impaired man bump into her on the tour, she told Wosnack any move was off.
“She said she would feel uncomfortable putting her staff into a location where she herself may feel unsafe,” Wosnack said.
He said the problem is the immense amount of downtown construction going on right now that has created large, empty zones where few office workers go but down-and-out folks congregate.
Once the new buildings are built, there will be more eyes on the street and safety in numbers for downtown residents and workers, so the issues will likely go away, Wosnack says.
“I’m comforted to know we’re in a momentary point of disruption.”
Some of the stories were more hopeful, even in regards to the present. Jodie Berry, a downtown resident for a dozen years and also a co-ordinator for REACH, a city organization that helps place homeless people with community services, says a few years ago her building was hit with a big increase in break-ins, thefts and dumpster diving, as well as folks camping out, taking drugs, defecating and urinating and leaving a mess in the back alley.
Condo residents were outraged and constantly called the police.
One day she saw two people picking through the dumpster, so she decided to talk to them. She asked them if they needed anything.
They asked for money for food. She offered to give them a Tim Hortons gift card, then mentioned how it made people feel unsafe when they were around and making a mess. At that point, the two men told her she didn’t own the alley and cursed at her.
Berry kept calm. She told the men things would work out better if they stopped smoking drugs and making such a mess, which scared people. She also told the men they had a right to be there.
“These people are residents of our city ... ,’’ she says. “They have a much harder existence than you or me. They are doing a lot more to survive than you or me ... they have a right to be here. They deserve dignity and respect.”
Over the next year, the two groups — some of the residents and some of the homeless — worked out a bit of a peace treaty, Berry said.
A few residents leave out empty bottles for the men. She and a few others in her condo started to converse more regularly with the homeless men.
There now hasn’t been a breakin in nine months. The mess and drug use in the alley has gone way down.
“The feelings and safety and security for the residents of our building, and the quality of life for (homeless) people who are endangered in that area, has got better on both sides,” Berry said. “I think it is possible. We need to think about our own approach and we need to be open to a solution that is not eradication.”