Concrete Jungle-Crack Cocaine addiction in downtown Toronto
Dubbed "crack alley," the stretch of George Street running between Dundas and Gerrard
streets is a bleak anomaly in a neighbourhood that fell on hard times, and kept falling. Here, a row of houses sits condemned, windows smashed and lawns strewn with garbage. A barbed wire fence cordons off a nearby school, and the few homeowners and students renting on the block have gated and padlocked their front porches.
Residents say George Street is worsening, and most point the finger at Seaton House, a homeless shelter that sits in the middle of the block. With capacity for at least 434 men, the shelter is one of Canada's largest, housing alcoholics, addicts, the elderly, the disabled and the mentally ill under one roof. I myself have gone to the gates of Seaton House to purchase crack cocaine. It is one in hundreds of hot spots for many shady souls. Although drugs are banned from the building, no checks are made.
Every day, addicts can be seen smoking crack on the sidewalks. Drug deals are made on the street under surveillance cameras suspended from the lamp posts; police installed them last fall. This does not stop the selling and the smoking. George street was an area that even a crack addicted prostitute like me tried to avoid altogether. I have seen horrible, unimagineable things during my 3 year hussle on the streets of downtown TO-George Street offers the worst of the worst. Routinely, people fight in the road, many struggling not just with addictions but also untreated mental illness.
"Although shelters are an important part of the fabric of dealing with homelessness, warehousing 600 people, all male, in one location, is not healthy for them or for the rest of the neighbourhood," Mr. Rae said. "Six hundred homeless guys? Most of whom addicts/alcoholics...mental illness... That's a recipe for really bad behaviour."
But Seaton House is one of at least 22 social welfare agencies (administering some 1,100 beds) and 41 rooming houses crammed into the area, it is a whole different way of life. It would discust me to see little kids going to school...normal families trying to live thier day-to-day lives...crackheads, dealers, husslers, hoes...you name it, they are all over the streets 24-7. Coming from a small city like Thunder Bay, I just couldn't stop watching. As messed up as I was at that time, I couldnt believe the way these people lived.
Staff and local police are emphatic that the shelter's men are not the problem, but rather, dealers who descend on the shelter, particularly on Thursday mornings, when the men receive their Personal Needs Allowance, roughly $27 a week.
"They get their money and the crack dealers are lined up on the steps in front of the building."
The community is plagued by crack cocaine, street prostitution, as well as "crime and disorder," many of the users"entry level addicts" typically those people who are new to the city, living in a shelter and experimenting with crack cocaine. Most never make it out of "The Game" alive. Some of the hookers that I have met over the years have been out there for 10+years. Turned out my thier own mothers. Turned out to feed thier cocaine addictions.
"What are you really achieving by putting vulnerable people who are addicted within spitting distance of one of the worst corners in the city? Queen and Sherbourne, Dundas and Sherbourne, they're right there. Why set up a block away?" That makes no sense to me.
Concrete Jungle-Crack Cocaine addiction in downtown Toronto
By: Anne Johnson
How To Cure Nasal Spray Addiction Using The Best Treatments Available Quit Marijuana Addiction Are You An Alcohol Addict? De-addicting The Alcohol With Expert Support Uncovering 3 Hideous Sides Of Marijuana Addiction What Is The Most Successful Way To Overcome An Addiction To Marijuana? Alcohol de-addiction needs a commitment to follow lifetime Alcohol De-addiction Needs A Commitment To Follow Lifetime Getting Ready For Your Addiction Counselor Test Reviving Life After Addiction Anti Depressant Ecstasy Can Lead To Addiction! Inpatient Alcohol Treatment: An Effective Way to Fight Addiction Stress, Addiction, De-addiction Trauma: A Vicious Circle