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By Alexa Gilker
IN a recent Times-Colonist interview, Jamie Pearce, head of the Victoria Police Department’s Focused Enforcement Team, said his personnel have been aggressively patrolling
spots like the 900 block of Pandora Avenue.
Street disorder, characterized by anything from mischief to drug offences and
panhandling, has been reported to be down 17 percent in the last year.
However, Rev. Harold Munn of St. John the Divine Anglican Church told the Times-Colonist that police efforts to move drug activity from Pandora has pushed it a block
north to Mason Street, where his church is located.
Munn noted that his parish council “can’t turn a blind eye to the significant increase in drug-related activity we’re seeing around our church.”
Streethope, a gospel mission for homeless teens, has been leasing a small
building on St. John’s property. Outreach director Rick Sandberg agreed that “much of the disorderly conduct which was formerly present on Cormorant Street
has moved to [the] church parking lot.”
St. John’s recently evicted Streethope from their property, citing in part Streethope’s shift in focus from homeless teens to drug-addicted adults as a reason for the
dramatic increase in drug-dealing on St. John’s property.
Sandberg said the eviction came as a surprise. He stated Streethope was “merely responding to the increased drug activity, not causing it.” He pointed out it has been St. John’s explicit policy to allow small gatherings of homeless individuals to rest and
sleep in the grassed area surrounding
In its response to allegations from St. John’s that Streethope had been “unable to enforce the requirement that the premises remain a drug-free zone,” Streethope stated “they were never required to stop everyone from using drugs.”
“If the police can’t stop them from using drugs, how do we?” Sandberg asked. “Instead, Streethope had agreed to ask people using drugs to go elsewhere, which
is what we relentlessly did.”
Sandberg said he believes the increased drug-related activity is proof that the
city is in need of an evangelistic downtown mission like Streethope, dedicated “not just to feeding the body, but in helping people hear and receive the word of
Christ.”
He added: “We are helping [drug-users] overcome sin in their lives, by the power of Christ
living in them.”
After December 31, Streethope will be temporarily operating out of a 30-foot
trailer wherever they can find space, and continuing their addiction ministry.
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St. John’s maintained in their press release that the intense issues surrounding people “living in sickness, chaos and vulnerability due to their addictions” were “beyond the ability of a volunteer congregation to respond to.”
St. John the Divine declined comment on Streethope’s response to their eviction.
Rev. Alanna Menu of Centennial United Church has also noted her congregation
reacting to street-population activity.
Centennial is located in the Burnside Gorge area, where the Cool-Aid society has
proposed construction of new transitional housing. Menu said the proximity of
the homeless shelter to the church has “increased anxiety among some members of the congregation.”
Menu recently organized a safety workshop facilitated by Darren Laur of Personal
Protection Systems. The Downtown Churches Association sponsored the workshop,
making it available for all churchgoers and staff of churches in the downtown
core.
Though Menu noted that no specific events or situations at Centennial United
caused the concern for churchgoer safety, she said some workers in downtown
churches had expressed anxiety about dealing with the increasing number of the
street population.
Her intention was that “the information at the workshop provide[d] some tactics and information that
will lower the fear of the unknown.”
December 2009
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