Citizens don't have to venture as far as Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to see people sleeping, begging, or rummaging through garbage bins in the streets and alleys. These, the city's so-called homeless, are found in most of the province's urban areas. This problem costs taxpayers in a number of ways, from welfare and policing costs to a loss of productive members of society and the deterioration of the city. At issue here is whether governments are pursuing the right solutions.

Since 2000, the Greater Vancouver Regional District has spent more than $50 million to address homelessness, but the number of people living on Greater Vancouver's streets doubled between 2002 and 2005. Until now, both municipal and provincial politicians have been focusing on the symptom, a lack of housing, and not the underlying problems. In fact, the people we see living on the street are made up of two main groups: the mentally ill and the drug addicted. The provincial government is finally putting in place strategies to deal with these problems, but it must go further.

The failure of the mental health system, not a housing affordability problem, put many of the mentally ill on the street. Politicians now realize that the policy of de-institutionalizing the mentally ill failed, and are creating new programs, such as the Riverview Redevelopment Project, to get the mentally ill off the street. This program will phase out the old Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam and build smaller facilities throughout the province. As many of the so-called homeless are mentally ill, this initiative should hopefully reduce in the number of people living on the street.

The other large group of so-called homeless - those who have decided to opt out of society - are the drug addicted. New provincial programs focus on getting people off drugs and back into society. Support under these programs, however, depends on personal responsibility and active program participation. Provincial funding will help non-profit societies, such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul of the Central Okanagan, provide short-term recovery programs. Addicts entering these programs must commit to living drug and alcohol free and be willing to work on skills that will help them opt-in to society and live independently.

This type of program has worked in other cities such as New York and San Francisco. Those cities reduced the overall level of so-called homelessness over a period of several years by building temporary assisted-housing where people can be taught more orderly habits.

Rehabilitation options won't work for everyone. If people decide to opt out, and that choice is reinforced by government's tolerance of criminal activity - then little will change. Law enforcement must also be part of the solution. If other cities have nipped this problem in the bud, we can too.

In Los Angeles, a beefed-up police force has been arresting people for drug dealing and petty crimes such as littering in Skid Row, with excellent results. According to the police, crime in downtown Los Angeles is now at 1940 levels. On February 1, 2007 some 800 people were counted on Skid Row streets, down from 1,900 in September 2006.

The province has re-focused its policies to deal with underlying problems: mental illness and drug addiction. This should stem the flow of taxpayers dollars wasted on policies that deal with symptoms, such as lack of housing. The new policies will only work, however, for people who want to change. If people want to opt out of society, that is their decision, but they cannot expect the taxpayer to continue to fund that choice. Zero tolerance for criminal activity is the extra step that will reduce the rewards to opting out, and further reduce the number of people living on the street.