Re. the photo…the shot in question (not the one pictured) was a wide shot of the intersection as a whole. The people that were taking issue with it were dealers…I have no sympathy for them.

There are a number of intersecting problems here. Some of which can be fixed, some of which can never be fixed, and some which are inevitably going to get worse.

Since I’m currently condo shopping, I’ve been paying attention to what’s happening with real estate development in our fair city. The gentrification that is planned for the DTES is massive, and it is real.

A lot of the current problems are because you have the slum landlords sitting on property, letting it deteriorate, knowing that in a few years they’ll eventually be able to bulldoze and cash it in for a nice return.

Gentrification might not be altogether a bad thing, but it is going to result in many thousands of substandard housing units being demolished and/or upgraded. The net result is that many people that live there now will not be able to live there 5 years from now.

The yuppies and hipsters are moving in, and the whole bad scene is going to have to shift further east, or scatter throughout the rest of the lower income areas of the city. There’s going to be more crime, for sure. There will be more homelessness.

The drug situation is particularly nasty. You’ve got 5000 addicts (and their dealers) there. Mix in a similar number of mentally ill people. There’s a significant overlap where mentally ill people are self-medicating. You’ve got people stealing and selling sex to survive. Nobody wants this situation in their backyard.

Some things that are needed are obvious: housing, detox programs, social assistance, health care, recreation programs, education programs, nutrition programs, native culture programs, spiritual programs, intelligent law enforcement, smart drug policy, structured environments for the mentally ill and disabled, etc, etc.

Unfortunately, no matter how much is done, there is always more to do. Poverty is one of those problems that can society can manage somewhat, but can never truly solve.

Also, a small percentage of the population are hell bent on destruction, and there’s just nothing that can really be done for them. The truly worst cases need to be separated from society. That’s difficult to do equitably and expensive as well.

The biggest thing that needs to happen for the people in the DTES is to provide ways for them to be reconnected back into normal communities that will accept them. That’s a particularly tough problem to solve, especially for the self-destructive cases.

It’s shocking to see how much drug dealing is going on in the open. The only cops to be seen are the ones guarding the movie sets.

I’m optimistic though. I think some progress could be made be by looking at the overall problem, and then looking at each individual case and doing the appropriate things. There is some political will there, but the public has largely already ostracized these people, so they aren’t really committed at a deep level to solving these problems.

People that have a troubled relationship with society still have a built-in human need for community, and the DTES provides some of that.

http://spacing.ca/

Michael Shapcott is the primary author. He went through around 100 years of research and policy suggestions to see what has worked and what hasn’t worked. A large part of the problem seems to be follow through. Government start something and then it’s either reversed or a new government is put in place and priorities change.

You can see the document here: http://wellesleyinstitute.com/theblueprint/

That url may change in the coming weeks because we’re revamping our site, but you can always find it at wellesleyinstitute.com.

As for your picture issue… you should general ask before taking a picture… that happens a lot in Toronto, I see it all the time – people taking pictures of the homeless. You can probably understand why it pissed them off, because they have no idea how the pictures will be used, etc…