What does DTK need?

[tomh009]

There are plenty of people who feel safe enough downtown to attend the many festivals and other events there. I have stood at the bus stop by the encampment after dark on Victoria and not felt unsafe. I have never felt unsafe on King St. The last time that I was annoyed by anything downtown was about 15 years ago when a drug addicted woman offered to do anything I wanted for $5. Yes, there are the occasional drunks and people yelling at other people, but I find that a normal city thing, not as bad as I have seen in Toronto where I used to live.

Based on personal observation, most of the drug use in DTK appears to be smoking (crystal meth? not really up on drug ID) and the symptoms of drug usage tend to be users frozen in odd positions on the sidewalk or in entrances. If there are random needles on the street (apart from the safe injection site near city hall) I really have not seen them. This is not at the same level as downtown eastside.

On the other hand, what I do see in the early mornings from time to time is people sitting on benches in the park or the IHT and smoking some (clearly illicit) drugs--but these are people who are very clearly not homeless, but rather look like contributing members of society who just stopped on the way to work to do some drugs, probably out of sight of their families. The drug use is definitely not limited to just the homeless population.

And mental health ... well, if the provincial government were willing to restore the funding they slashed, we might make some headway on those issues, but even that is not a silver bullet that will solve all those problems.