Beggars, homeless & junkies, Vancouver

I have travelled many places in the world including North Africa, and have felt more safe and less bothered there than in the city of Vancouver. Supposedly, peaceful Vancouver Canada has a huge drug problem, and one of the worst ghettos in North America. In fact, it is the only city in the world where I know addicts deal drugs, and inject drugs right on the same block as the police station Main and Hastings. Ironically you are likely to get a arrested if you peacefully drink a beer on the beach, so hypocritical. Vancouver is so full of aggressive beggars and panhandlers that block your path and harass you that many residents avoid going downtown. More importantly the worse area is right in betwen the tourist areas of Chinatown and Gastown. However, the problem exists through out the city. In addition, Vancouver has one of the highest property crime rates and car theft rates in North America, so if you plan to drive in Vancouver, your car may not be there when you get back, or it will have its window broken, and valuables including pop cans stolen.

For those who are willing to put up with the annoying social issues of Vancouver, it is a beautiful place to visit in the summer!

I live in Vancouver.. have for 44 years. It's my "home". All you bashers have no damn idea. This is the MOST expensive city in Canada, if not North America, and we get the LEAST minimum wage, and LEAST amount for social services, such as disabilty.. it hasn't risen in 10 YEARS! Do you have any idea what it's like to get $900 a month for disability, yet rents START at $600 to $700? Rents rose by 50% over the course of the Olympics. People lost there places to make room for tourists, who paid much more than the original tenants paid. And after the Olympics, the rents stayed just as high. I'm lucky that it's just me.. it would be worse if I was a single mother.

Then there's the psychiatric hospitals and old folks homes, closed down to make way for condos. Where do you think they wound up?

And for the people that unfortunately wound up on the streets because of this, the city built shelters.. to clean the streets before the "party" started. But 1 month after the Olympics ended, the city decides it can't "afford" to keep the shelters open.. everybody's back on the streets. Welfare only covers you for 3 months, or at least that used to be the rule, and they only get $525.. $375 for rent.. anything above, and it comes out of your support. .. Kraft Dinner's $2 a box! The very little they give you doesn't go very far.

As for the beggers/aggressive panhandlers.. every big city has it, we're not alone. Ever been to Hawaii? Same thing. So's New York, Toronto, Seattle, "your city".

As for the crack heads smoking in plain site.. yes it's sad, but it's society. In Amsterdam they're not doing anything illegal, not even if crack, yet here in Canada.. they're criminals, scum. Heck.. the biggest dealer's hangout is kitty-corner to the Vancouver Police Station.. in plain site. Yes, police do their rounds, but it doesn't stop.

People need to step back and think for a moment.. "why" are these people in this situation in the first place? And "why" doesn't their government care?? .. It's criminal.

I slept in alleys, didn't shower, started with $0 dollars, and roamed the streets for a full week during Christmas time. From Dec 23-30 I ventured out main and hastings late at night trying to find a spot to sleep. I took a notebook with me and wrote about 120 pages of my entire experience. I am blogging about this whole thing now at www.godspeasant.wordpress.com. All I can say is that it is not what people think it is. There are a lot of misunderstood, great, educated, intelligent, sincere, and warm people that are either homeless, or are just living in an extremely impoverished state. To those people that have never sat down and talked to anybody that is homeless, I would encourage you do to so with an open mind and an open heart. That way we can all progress in our society and move towards a better future for us all, whether one is rich or poor.

okay guys
alot of these posts make vancouver seem like a REALLY scary place. Im gonna let you know, it really isn't. I live in a small town just outside of vancouver called tsawassen, and....its sorta known to be a snobby little town. It has no crime at all, so you could say that i would be expected to feel very in danger downtown. Im gonna let you know right now, i am NOT at all. Me and my friends take the canada line train into downtown, down by robson and granville, every weekend, normally stay till about 1 then come home, and i have never had any issues. I am 13 years old, and 5'1, not the most street smart, and my mother says i look "vulnerable" and i still have had no issues downtown, or with the homeless or beggers. My mother even lets my 10 year old sister take the skytrain downtown with her friends to go shopping. Apart from the eastside, this city is perfectly safe. Just stay away from the eastside. I used to have to go down there for acting auditions, being around there brings me to tears. Its really bad, but just a few streets away, around robson and granville and such, i feel safe alone at night. So, my point being, dont be afraid of vancouver just because of what you have seen or heard about the east side, because that is only 10 blocks of this amazing city. The east side is scary as hell, but stay away from there and its the most wonderful and beautiful city ever. I love it here. DONT skip over vancouver cause of "skidrow"

We stayed at the nice little Holiday Inn, right near Granville Bridge, in downtown. The hotel was nice; but the view looked out onto the street, where there was a 711 and a bustop in front of it. The junkies on Sunday morning gathered in front of the 711, and actually did drug/money exchange, right oout in the open! Then, the junkies took their junk to the bus stop, and smoked it! It was pretty disgusting. They look like animals; the way they move, the constant moving; you'd think that their bodies couldn't put up with that for too long. Anyway, it was sad to me that there is suck a lack of police in the city, to do anything about this open drug use. Also, the dealer who sold the drugs was with a retarded boy, and I thought that was sad. I could see that he was retarded, from our fourth floor window, but his caregiver was busy making money I guess. Get it together, Vancouver, crack down on that drug use; it hurts the children involved, whose parents are strung out. And for us tourists, it's not too fun to see.

Vancouver, especially in recent years, has had an ongoing problem with aggressive panhandling. Aggressive meaning that beggars will approach people as opposed to simply sitting off to the side. It's a huge political topic in the city, but an issue that never seems to get solved.

Some beggars are legitimately homeless. Some are hardcore drug addicts. Some are mentally ill, and some are just begging as a lifestyle choice.

I've noticed, especially on travel forums, that unsuspecting (and often first-time) visitors to Vancouver are often scared by Vancouver's beggars. If they're not scared, they tend to assume that beggars are somehow dangerous, or that they signify a dangerous neighbourhood. This is not really the case.

The beggars in Vancouver are just that. They are not armed robberers. They are not violent. They do not signify bad neighbourhoods. Most importantly, Vancouver's "bad" neighbourhoods, such as the Downtown Eastside, are not violent. They may have a lot of drug addiction and open air drug use, but they are not places of random violence, muggings, or gang warfare.

Beggars are especially visible in downtown Vancouver, especially in areas of high pedestrian and/or tourist traffic. So even places with high end shops will eventually have beggars at one point during the day wandering around outside. Some begging hotspots include Water Street in Gastown, Granville Street, Davie Street, Robson Street, and Denman Street. Even neighbourhoods outside of downtown like Kitsilano and Commercial Drive have their fair share of beggars.

If you look like a tourist, beggars are more likely to hassle you - especially in Gastown, and especially if you dress like you just stepped off a cruise from Alaska. Just tell them no. They will almost always leave you alone. There is no need to fear them. Keep your street smarts and don't feel you need to give away your money. And don't be surprised if you get asked over 5 times in one day for spare change. This is the unfortunate reality of 21st century Vancouver.

we arrived in Vancouver during the day and immedietely made our way to the East Hastings area to score some buds and seeds. during the day this area was pretty normal we scored some bc buds across from blunt brothers and come some hash then we went and ate crayfish heads in china town. by that time it was late so we found a hotel room but when we were unpacking our stuff another hotel room got raided by the swat team so we decided we would go chill back in east hastings when we got there it was a different feeling than before during the day. we started to look for a hash bar when we met this fellow called sandman he had tinfoil and a radio reciever on his head he was about five six and had long black hair he must have been native american but anyway he tried to rob us but we managed to evade him after he tried to get us to go down an alley way with him. Anyway lots of hookers mediocre bud and crazy mother f*$kers in that city \. ps if your reading this forum sandman f#@# you man next time well take your money homo.

Already this is becoming my major problem in Vancouver.Homeless people.Now i have nothing against homeless people,however dont come up with a long winded story and say how nice i am.Three times in the last 2 hours i have had the following.I am from Oz,In prison,lost my daughter,going to get thrown out.Second one is I havent got enough money for parking(which i stupidly gave her),Thirdly im collecting for the Samaritans.Watch out for these usual suspects.

I have travelled many places in the world including North Africa, and have felt more safe and less bothered there than in the city of Vancouver. Supposedly, peaceful Vancouver Canada has a huge drug problem, and one of the worst ghettos in North America. In fact, it is the only city in the world where I know addicts deal drugs, and inject drugs right on the corner of the police station. Ironically you are likely to get a ticket if you peacefully drink a beer on the beach, so hypocritical. Vancouver is so full of aggressive beggars and panhandlers that block your path and harass you that many residents avoid going downtown. In addition, Vancouver has one of the highest property crime rates and car theft rates in North America, so if you plan to drive in Vancouver, your car may not be there when you get back, or it will have its window broken.

For those who are willing to put up with the annoying social issues of Vancouver, it is a beautiful place to visit in the summer!

Here are some tips on dealing with panhandlers from somebody who does it on a regular basis. There are a lot of people out there that have no choice. They closed down a lot of wards at our mental health facility and there weren't enough group homes for them to transfer people to so they ended up on the east side.

- Be polite, even if you can't stand them when they ask you for change respond with "sorry I can't today" or something along those lines. It will prevent you from being harassed or verbally abused.

- Be selective, if you are a bleeding heart and inclined to give money to panhandlers be picky about who you're giving it to. Choose the people who are providing a service such as shoe shinning or selling things they've made over people who are just sitting there demanding money.

- Find an alternative, if you don't want to give them money maybe take the time out of your day to stop in at one of our many veggie markets and buy them some fruit. What is a 34 cent orange? Or maybe even a smile to brighten their day.