Jeffrey Quon and Pauline Fedder

The lawns are manicured, houses well maintained, tulips bloom in gardens, children play outside and a man crouches by white garage injecting drugs. Welcome to the heart of Kitsilano.

When they leave their house to drive their children to activities or go to work, Jeffrey and Quon and Pauline Fedder can’t help but think they never expected to raise their two children, who are now 13 and 16, in an area where they would learn to scan the ground outside their home for needles. The couple has lived in Kits for 18 years; they’ve been in their current home, located about a block away from the Kitsilano Community Centre, for the past two years. The couple shares a chiropractic practice and Quon is also completing his PhD in epidemiology. They balance a busy schedule of work, various meetings at their children’s school and numerous extra-curricular activities for their kids.

But, like 74 percent of Vancouver residents, they support the Four Pillars approach that equally stresses treatment, prevention, harm reduction and enforcement. Earlier this year, Quon wrote a letter to Vancouver City Councillor Raymond Louie, speaking about the growth in the homeless and drug users into his Kitsilano neighbourhood. It was copied to all city councillors and the mayor. “I didn’t want to send my inquiry to the Vancouver Police Department because I don’t view this as a criminal problem (yet), as much as I see it as an immediate social and public health problem in the city at large,” Quon wrote.

Like 74 percent of Vancouver residents, Quon and Fedder support the Four Pillars approach that equally stresses treatment, prevention, harm reduction and enforcement.

He explained that he and his wife finally acknowledged the city’s drug problem was right up against their gate, literally, when Fedder took out the garbage one night and she was startled by the presence of a man squatting by their back fence. He was injecting drugs. The two exchanged hellos and he did not threaten Fedder, although he later dropped the needle aside. The next morning, the contents of the recycling and garbage bins had been tossed onto the laneway, with another needle nearby. Fedder managed to restrain the family’s Labrador-retriever to keep his nose away from the needle.

Last February, Ipsos Reid conducted a poll for Global BC and one of the questions focused on the Four Pillars approach. Seventy-Four percent of Vancouverites expressed support for the strategy. With the problem literally at their back gate, Quon and Fedder agree with it as well.

“I firmly believe that if you stick your head in the sand and just enforce, you’re creating more desperation among those who need help,” Quon said in an interview.

He wrote in his letter that while the sudden growth in used needles tossed in his neighbourhood has been uncomfortable, it has also reminded area residents of the privileges they may have taken for granted. He said he would even be willing to pay higher taxes, if the funds would help pay for shelters and effective social programs for the homeless. “And for the one smaller subgroup of street people who are perhaps at the heart of this particular message, I do support the concept of safe injection sites throughout the city, and would even support having one ‘in my own backyard’.”

“I firmly believe that if you stick your head in the sand and just enforce, you’re creating more desperation among those who need help.” Jeffrey Quon

Fedder didn’t support higher taxes and she does not want to have an injection site located at Kits Community Centre, for example. But she supported the notion of more injection sites throughout the city, including within Kitsilano.

“If there was a way to implement that city wide, instead of trying to fence in one part of the city, there might be hope,” Quon said. “You’ve got to walk the walk. Too many people talk about the good things that should happen in the city and are not willing to shoulder the burden a bit.”

Quon also points to the crime associated with drug use --such as break-and-enters, purse snatchings and sex work-- and wonders if a system of regulating drugs would be a more effective way of controlling their use and tackling crime. “A lot of it is just a complication of the drug trade.”

Quon and Fedder said that they’re willing to speak out because they really do care about this city and finding a way to solve its drug problem. Fedder described an event at her children’s school that was hosted by Covenant House (which provides shelter and other services to homeless youth), where participants took on the history and living situation of a real homeless teen and then tried to figure out ways to surmount their problems. She realized how much she struggled to figure out how to cope with the teenager’s situation. But she found the presence of youth from Covenant House who helped make the presentation --and illustrated the point that, with support, it is possible for homeless or addicted youth to turn their lives around-- comforting. “I felt there is hope.”

She hopes that by speaking out, she may encourage others to at least consider ways they can help. “Everyone’s initial reaction is just fear.”

Quon agreed he would also like to raise people’s awareness of the problem. “I think it’s good if people know this problem is spreading to our neighbourhood,” he said. “Most people think it’s a problem confined to the Downtown Eastside.”

But as a life-long Vancouver resident and parent of two teens, Quon also wants to set a good example for his children and do his part to help his community and city. “At this stage of my life, I’m wonder what’s going to become of this city and what kind of city our children are going to inherit,” he said.