By Cheryl Jahn

City in Crisis: the Downtown

Nov 19, 2019 | 3:52 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The downtown is the epicentre of mental health, addictions and homelessness. It has become the source of much anxiety for local government and downtown businesses alike. For the RCMP, the players in the downtown are different.

“I would say, yes, there is a sense of entitlement or even just defacto ownership just through the circumstance that they’re there predominantly throughout the day. Amongst some individuals, for sure,” says Supt Shaun Wright. “I don’t think you would have seen that years ago. But times have changed. Attitudes have changed and a lot of behaviours have been normalized in a society that really wouldn’t have been tolerated by the general public years ago.

In fact, he estimates how much property crime, regardless of where it happens, can be attributed to drugs.

“Yeah, I mean it would just be a rough guess, but I would say, you’re probably looking at 90 per cent of property crimes are related to drug use in one way or another.”

Bernie Gould is one of the founders of the St. Vincent de Paul Society on Second Avenue. Her organization started with sandwiches for the homeless. What it is today is never what she envisioned.

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“Well, we have to be a lot more cautious of the people that come in and out. We, uh, you know, what saddens us the most .. there’s definitely, we won’t deny there’s people sleeping out and people sleeping near the building or around the building. But we also serve those who are challenged by poverty.”

Make sure to tune in to CKPG Today for the five-part series “City in Crisis.”