Two weeks ago, a small converted ambulance that patrolled the streets of Vancouver at night and provided a lifeline to many sex trade workers as they stood on street corners, disappeared.
The Mobile Access Project, or the MAP Van, was an essential service to many of the city's most vulnerable. Now, it is gone. The Map Van was a victim of provincial budget cuts. And in a way, so are the countless women who used the van's services, and who make easy prey for so many other predators.
Please read the Vancouver Sun's pieces on the topic, while I go try to drink some clear fluids.
Victoria Cuts Off Funds to Service that Protects Sex Trade Workers
Women will be at greater risk of violence, advocate says
An advocate for Vancouver sex-trade workers says they will soon be at greater risk because the B.C. government has cut off funding for a van that cruises the streets at night, watching out for the women.
Losing the van means a greater risk of violence and less access to harm-reduction supplies, first aid, and bad-date reports in the overnight hours when sex workers are most active, said Kate Gibson, executive director of the WISH Drop-in Centre.
The van, which supplies the only overnight services to sex workers, is stocked with condoms, first-aid supplies, a needle exchange, coffee, fruit juice, water, referrals to support services, and posters showing missing women and dangerous johns.
It stops along the most popular strolls or at specific locations requested by sex workers. Each night, 40 to 50 women show up for supplies, support or companionship over a cup of coffee. The van's last run will be on June 12.
The province, citing financial pressure, has not renewed the $250,000 needed to keep the van running for another year.
The solicitor-general's ministry said the project's funding request is under review.
"The provincial government, like other jurisdictions around the world, is facing challenging and unprecedented economic times, requiring some difficult decisions," the ministry said in a statement Wednesday to The Vancouver Sun.
Laurel Irons, who has staffed the van since 2004, said sex workers "are already very upset, concerned and feel just really left out in the cold, wondering why such an important service to them is being taken away."
Irons said she has intervened at times when sex workers were stalked, pepper-sprayed and assaulted.
"I don't know what a lot of women are going to do without having somewhere to turn in those desperate moments," she said.
Kate Shannon, a research scientist at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said services that keep sex work above-ground are essential for ensuring women's health.
"We need to scale up mobile services to sex workers. The closure of the mobile access-point van is a huge step backwards," Shannon said.
The City of Vancouver is considering how it can help restore funding, Coun. Kerry Jang said.
rtebrake@vancouversun.com
Cutting off Funding for street prostitute van is unconscionable
Vancouver Sun
June 17, 2009 9:34
It's common to hear politicians at all levels of government speak sympathetically about the plight of prostitutes who work on street. But doing something about their plight is another thing entirely.
We know that the 20 per cent of prostitutes who work the street are in far more danger than the 80 per cent who work in escort agencies or out of apartments or hotels. Indeed, almost every one of the more than 100 prostitutes murdered in British Columbia in the past two decades has been a street worker.
We also know that street workers tend to be among the lowest functioning prostitutes, as many have endured horrific abuse and are frequently battling addictions and psychiatric illnesses.
Consequently, we hear politicians speak about how we need to provide better services for such women, including exit services to help them leave life on the street.
Yet exit programs remain scarce, and mental health and addiction services are still inadequate. So despite the rhetoric, "survival" sex workers -- those who must sell their bodies to survive -- remain on the street.
And that means the few services that offer them a minimum of protection become all-important. Services like the Mobile Access Project, a van that roams the streets and back alleys of Vancouver between 10.30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m., offering street workers refreshments, condoms, needles, information and protection.
Perhaps we should say the van "roamed" the streets, because it is no more. Thanks to the B.C. government's decision not to renew funding for the project, which is run by the Women's Information and Safe House (WISH) and Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education Society (PACE), the van no longer takes to the streets.
This means that during the hours when many of the most vulnerable prostitutes work, and are therefore in the most danger, there will be no services available at all.
This is tremendously unfortunate, given that the van would, among other things, keep records of missing women and of "bad dates" -- street slang for being assaulted or abused on the job.
The project would also supply police and social service agencies with information about these events, which means it could well have saved the lives of many women.
And it is nothing short of extraordinary that the province would eliminate funding for a project like this in a city still reeling from the murders of scores of women.
The van also prevented abuse in a more direct way: According to an evaluation of the project, 16 per cent of van users said the van's presence prevented them from being assaulted.
The project has also helped prevent the spread of blood borne infections like HIV and Hepatitis C, as it distributed condoms and clean needles, while collecting used ones. And given the tremendous cost of treating even one such infection, the van clearly proved its cost-effectiveness.
Finally, regarding exit strategies -- the project happens to be one of the few that provides work experience for street prostitutes, as it hired former prostitutes to work with those who are still on the street.
Hence, if we're really interested in helping vulnerable women leave the street, the van should be among our highest priorities.
To be sure, governments everywhere are under significant financial pressure, and must carefully choose what projects to fund.
But to eliminate funding for a program that is cost-effective -- and cost-averting -- is unwise, to say the least. And to eliminate funding for a cost-effective program that saves and improves lives is unconscionable.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
***Please let the Premier know you've been following the story in the media:
premier@gov.bc.ca
Gordon Campbell, Premier of BC
Telephone: 250-387-1715
Fax: 250-387-0087
Parliament Buildings, Room 156
Victoria, British Columbia
V8V 1X4
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