‘If 3030 Gordon never existed . . . most of those problems would not be there.’ Port Coquitlam councillor blasts homeless shelter

A routine RCMP update on crime statistics veered into a conversation on homelessness in Port Coquitlam recently, with one councillor warning about both community apathy and the possibility of retaliation.

Discussing Port Coquitlam’s downtown, Coun. Dean Washington said he was shocked by the number of homeless people – although he didn’t use that term.

“I don’t use the word homeless, I would use the term: people that don’t want to work,” Washington said.

The councillor described seeing people taking drugs in “broad daylight on Shaughnessy Street,” and spotting one “filthy” person “stoned out of his mind” near a coffee shop. The city is investing in the downtown but residents are scared to go there, Washington added.

“I’m sick of it,” Washington told Coquitlam RCMP Supt. Darren Carr. “I won’t say what I said in a closed meeting because it might get me unelected.”

Allowing that it’s a “very sensitive issue,” Carr said the public is not reporting what Washington described.

“The data that we have in terms of street level disturbance doesn’t match what with you’re saying, it’s actually trending down,” Carr said.

“I’m not saying they’re doing things,” Washington responded.

The problem, Washington continued, is that homelessness seems to be accepted now.

“That’s why I’m speaking out like this because I think the apathy has set in,” Washington said.

Police can’t take action unless someone is committing some manner of offence, Carr reiterated.

“Just being there and looking untidy, as unpleasant as it may be, we have no powers [under provincial policing standards],” he said.

Carr recommended calling police whenever there’s a problem. However, that doesn’t always solve the problem, Washington told him.

The councillor described being spat at and twice, sworn at, and called a racial epithet.

“You know what happened? Nothing,” he said. “There’s going to come a time where the retaliation’s going to go the other way and it’s not going to be good for these people.”

“I would definitely caution you or anybody else not to take the law into their own hands,” Carr replied.

Washington was clear that he wasn’t planning to retaliate.

“If I wasn’t a city councillor and that guy did to me 30 years ago what he did, there would’ve been a different reaction from me,” Washington added.

Coquitlam RCMP should being patrolling downtown more often, Washington recommended.

“If there’s no one around, there’s no eyeballs, then the inmates are running the asylum,” he said.

Police are conducting foot patrols “as much as we realistically can,” Carr told Washington.

Coun. Darrell Penner focused his comments on the 3030 Gordon Avenue homeless shelter, which he called: “a government-funded crack house.”

“They come in there, they can do whatever they want, use all the drugs they want, and it’s being funded by the government,” Penner said.

For police, the focus is next door, according to Carr.

“Most of the problems we’re having is really 3020 Gordon,” he said, adding that police are working with the City of Coquitlam on the issue.

“If 3030 Gordon never existed, I would say that most of those problems would not be there,” Penner responded.

“I think I may have said a few times, ‘Build it and they will come,’” Carr concurred.

But while the police may have some role in finding a solution, other agencies will need to find a path forward, according to Carr.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this situation,” he said.

However, Penner replied, police can move the problem.

If someone is taking intravenous drugs in public, “They should just be taken off the street, made very uncomfortable for them, not exceeding what the powers are of the police . . . but if this is done consistently, they’ll get fed up.”

Coun. Paige Petriw asked Carr about how local business owners should deal with homeless people congregating near their establishments.

Police can sometimes move them on, Carr said, but they tend to stay in the neighbourhood. “It’s a little bit like sweeping up leaves on a windy day,” he said.

Business owners shouldn’t get frustrated with homeless people, nor should they try to kill them with kindness, Carr advised.

“It’s like feeding the bears almost,” he said. “Don’t feed them or they’re going to keep coming around.”

The Dispatch reached out to RainCity Housing, which operates the 3030 Gordon Ave. shelter, but didn’t hear back by press time.