A desperate young man broke a window, frightened residents as he roamed the hallways. He doesn\u0027t need a jail cell, he needs help.
He didn’t appear dangerous to anyone other than himself in his sad, dazed state as he disappeared around the corner of the high-rise condo building. But minutes later, he was screaming at the entrance.
Sign up to know what's really happening by reading daily editorials and commentary by British Columbia's opinion leadersBy clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. You may unsubscribe any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails or any newsletter. Postmedia Network Inc. | 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4 | 416-383-2300A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againAfter the concierge opened the door and offered to get him a coat, the tall, bedraggled young man lunged at him. The concierge quickly closed the door and ran to call police. In the meantime, with strength that didn’t seem possible, the stranger smashed the plate-glass window with a brick that he had apparently picked up along the way. Once inside, the man, who appeared to be in his 30s, took the elevator and began prowling the halls shouting for his girlfriend. Alerted by the howls that preceded him, several residents dashed back into their homes and locked their doors.Article content Fortunately, police arrived before anything worse happened. He was arrested and police logged it as mischief, not break and enter. It was one of 93 mischief calls within the past week and 497 crime incidents shown on the Vancouver Police Department’s crime-trackingBut the concierge — a young man himself — is shaken. Some residents, particularly women who live alone, no longer feel entirely safe even in the hallways behind the locked and alarmed entrances. Those of us who saw parts of the man’s progress from despair to desperation wonder whether something could or should have been done to avoid all of this — the arrest, the damage, and now the lingering fear.Article content No one is sure of the young man’s fate. But if it is jail, it’s almost certainly not the right place. He needs help, not incarceration. He needs a safe place to live, food and proper clothing. He likely also needs some mental health or addictions treatment. This happened in a neighbourhood with one of the city’s lowest crime rates. It didn’t happen on the Downtown Eastside or downtown, Chinatown, the West End, Yaletown, or on Main Street where smashed windows, break-ins, car and bicycle theft and unprovoked stranger attacks have become common enough that public safety became a deciding issue in Vancouver’s October civic election. Mayor Ken Sim and the ABC councillors won a majority by promising 100 additional police officers and 100 more psychiatric nurses.Article content The 2023 police budget request includes $15.7 million for the hiring of 100 officers and 20 “civilian professionals.” Vancouver has requested that Vancouver Coastal Health provide the funding for more psychiatric nurses. Opponents characterized the promise as right-wing and reactionary, and some argue that the presence of police often exacerbates situations that might better be handled by civilians and peers. But others working in these risky situations say those arguments ignore the volatility of people whose grasp of reality is tenuous, as well as the risk they can pose — including to those who are there to help. NDP Premier David Eby has recognized the severity of the public safety problems posed by the overlapping crises of poverty, homelessness, addiction and mental health treatment, not only in Vancouver, but across the province.Article content In November, he announced a plan that includes $3 million for integrated, mobile crisis-response teams — similar to what Sim and the city envision — in other locations as well. It also provides for expanded peer-assisted care teams. And in long-overdue recognition that not only is the death rate from a toxic drug supply at epidemic levels, so too are the rate of hypoxic brain injuries among survivors, there will be $4.5 million over three years so that the Brain Injury Alliance can provide services in 13 communities. “People should not be forced to interact with the justice system before getting access to high-quality, publicly funded mental health care.” That was one of the conclusions in a 110-page report on repeat offenders and violent stranger attacks released by the B.C. government in October.Article content The troubled young man searching for his girlfriend is a case in point. Had someone offered the appropriate help in the right way at the right time, he wouldn’t have picked up a brick. He wouldn’t have been arrested. And residents would not now be feeling vulnerable and afraid in their own homes. We will likely never know whether he has or had a girlfriend who lived in that particular building. But I want to believe that she does exist and once, perhaps, even loved him. And I believe that there are other people who love and worry about that shivering young man. They likely rest uneasily not knowing where or how he is, yet also knowing that they have done everything they could and have nothing left to give. They and all the many others like them need a village to help bring the loved and the lost safely home.Article content As for the villagers, we need to ensure that the policymakers fulfill their promises so that when we hear those despairing cries. Appropriately trained people with adequate resources are only a phone call away.
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