CITY STAFF DEAL WITH DOWNTOWN CLEANUP, 3 ALL-CANDIDATES FORUM SET FOR WEDNESDAY, 6
97/16, 27 MANY MEMORIES FOR PIONEER COUPLE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019
PRINCE GEORGE
Nadalin
97/16, 29 AARON PRITCHETT RETURNS TO PG SATURDAY
THURSDAY October 3, 2019 Your community newspaper since 1916
PGCITIZEN.CA
PRINCEGEORGECITIZEN
Frontline workers focus on street people CHRISTINE HINZMANN Staff Reporter
chinzmann@pgcitizen.ca
There are young women shrouded in blankets, cardboard covering others. Some people are huddled together for warmth on the chilly morning while still more are slowly making their way over to St. Vincent de Paul Society’s Drop In Centre on Second Avenue where breakfast will soon be served. It’s about 7:30 a.m. on the day after welfare Wednesday in downtown Prince George. RCMP officers are out doing their usual downtown duty of moving those who live on the street up and out of the way of businesses that will soon be opening their doors. According to Don, a homeless man who has lived in Prince George his whole life, nobody has to go hungry here. Don stays at Ketso Yoh as often as he can. Ketso Yoh is a shelter for men operated by the Prince George Native Friendship Centre and offers 21 emergency shelter beds, 10 alcohol and drug supportive recovery beds, and 15 supported living beds. “It’s quieter on the street today after everyone on welfare gets their money,” Don says. “There’s a lot less people around because they all got money but usually we’ve got lots more people downtown now than ever before. There’s lots of new faces around here lately.” He’s not sure why that is but he’s certainly noticed. He says there are more people on drugs he has to avoid. This Thursday morning, as the people are moved along by the police, there’s a lot of debris left over. Discarded needles are strewn on the ground, there’s clothes used as bedding, food wrappers and empty cups scattered around. There’s even human feces. Cleanup duties are left to the bylaw compliance assistants, a team the was put in place last year to deal with the massive job on a daily basis. This effort was done as a pilot project and was recently approved as a permanent part of the city’s bylaw services. As much as 1,000 pounds of debris is removed from the downtown area a week, which includes camps set up throughout the city.
CITIZEN PHOTOS
Above: Cpl. Sonja Blom logs into her computer prior to hitting the streets Thursday morning. Below: Blom checks on a homeless man on Quebec Street Thursday morning.
Cpl. Sonja Blom is making her morning rounds. She’s been in Prince George for the whole 12 years she’s been an RCMP officer and she loves the city, she says. She’s originally from 100 Mile House and lives here with her husband, who is also a police officer, and their two young daughters. Blom usually rides in Car 60, the mental health and domestic violence unit, which is a partnership between Northern Health and the Prince George RCMP detachment. Today, she’s in two hours earlier than usual to escort The Citizen on a ride along. Accompanying Blom is Carmen De Continued on page 2
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