*ABSOLUTELY NO POLITICAL COMMENTS PLEASE*
I do not want this thread locked.
Locally, over the past several years, there has been a massive insurgence of homeless as well as a huge spike in the number of addicts/addicted who roam the streets. These groups may have some members in common, but I believe many of the latter crash at trap houses and the like.
I've had 9 bicycles stolen, which has been frustrating, but every time, my kids have forgotten to lock the bikes up. Until last night.
Things got weird a little while ago where a guy was up on my deck, had gone through my backyard, and then when caught by one of my kids, pretended like he wanted a drink.
When I was a kid our downtown was amazing. Lots of little shops, sidewalks were clean, absolutely no risk of running into a nutter.
Now, there's somebody living in many of the former shop entrances, their sprawl strewn into the walk. There are people shooting-up in broad daylight and passing out. We had a couple get totally zonked and KO'd on the island just across from our place back in the spring. I saw a guy totally collapsed, looked like he was dead, on the church steps. A friend of mine works downtown, one of his duties is sweeping up the needles so customers don't step on them. Things have totally gone to hell.
They all ride bicycles (which are stolen). They all carry backpacks. They feed their habits via theft and their actions have become more and more brazen.
My parents live in a nice area, near the old teachers college. Most houses are worth well north of $1M at this point, theirs probably around 1.5. Literally 6 houses away an elderly woman comes into her kitchen and there's an addict going through her purse. Terrified and in a panic, she flees to the neighbour's house, calls the police, there's a chase, they lose the crackhead, who managed to scuttle off through backyards like a spider monkey. It's terrifying for a mostly older population in that area who are extremely accustomed to feeling safe where they live and are defenseless.
One of their main sources of revenue has been people's unlocked cars. They go through, steal change and whatever else they can find, but things are now escalating.
There's a local group that I'm a member of that's sort of like a city-wide neighbourhood watch that's trying to aide in tracking these individuals and helping people get their stuff back. For quite a stint you'd have the odd person call out "lock your doors" in response to somebody losing their stuff. Clearly, not helpful. That crowd has become quite quiet recently as locked vehicles are being broken into. These hoppers are now carrying slim-jims and other manner of break-in tools. They are going into people's houses. Last night, I had two crappy bikes stolen off my deck, the guy was smart enough to stay out of frame of the camera (this is a first) but you could clearly see him weilding bolt cutters from the other side of my deck rail. With no consequences and a system of catch-and-release, there is literally no deterrent for these people to just continuously up the level of how bold they can be.
I see media attention given to groups promoting safe injection sites, more free needles (a local group gave out 750,000 needles in 2019, only 235,000 made their way into the return bins...) and a "compassionate approach". Clearly, this isn't working and in fact appears to be making the situation dramatically worse. These people need treatment within the confines of a treatment facility, not a fresh needle and a place to shoot-up. Enablement isn't compassion, it's lazy, these people need a hand-up not a hand-out. When you are having to train downtown shop staff how to revive folks with Narcan perhaps it would be wise to revisit the effectiveness of what you've deemed a "solution".
