Gerry Lepage. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

Some area business leaders say the city's intention to investigate employment opportunities for homeless people through unlicensed street vendoring is shortsighted and possibly dangerous.

"I think this idea will create horrendous problems because it's one thing for someone in the Market area to rent a booth where they're paying taxes to the city for the use of the property, but when you have panhandlers being able to sell arts and crafts I think they will be bothersome to people," says Judy Richards, president of Davidson's Jewellers on Bank Street. "It'll be like going on a vacation to Mexico and having people on the beach who never leave you alone. We aren't a third world country here and I don't think we should be allowing this kind of thing on our streets."

As a retailer in the downtown core, Ms. Davidson believes the area needs to remain a restricted area for designated space permits. She's against any plans to repeal the Safe Streets Act and says it is needed to keep Ottawa uncluttered and free from unwanted solicitation.

At the city council meeting on May 24, a variety of recommendations regarding the Safe Streets Act will be addressed after weeks of intense discussion. Council will consider 30 proposals made by a city homelessness task force that examined ways to alter or repeal Ontario's Safe Streets Act. The act was created in 1999 to discourage aggressive panhandling.

The 30 proposals deal with homelessness issues ranging from affordable housing to street outreach services and changes to the Safe Streets Act, which critics have characterized as a "bad law." But a large number of the city's business owners and representatives have expressed concern about the section regarding employment opportunities for homeless people through unlicensed vendoring on the street and/or the possibility of permitting the sale of arts and crafts at permanent locations in Ottawa.

Gerry LePage, the executive director of the Bank Street Promenade BIA, recently made a presentation at the city's health, recreation and social services committee about his concerns. He thinks some city councillors are starting to see that these employment opportunities won't work.

"If there's no buy-in from the business community then it will create more animosity than harmony and rather than help these individuals, it will in fact hinder them because there's going to be another element of hostility in the environment from businesspeople," he says. "I think the message resonated that they're not creating a solution, but just creating another problem."

Mr. LePage remembers when the downtown core was saturated with itinerant vendors 20 years ago prior to the designated space program and he says many of the city's most popular streets looked like a giant garage sale.

"Many arguments and physical confrontations broke out amongst the vendors themselves as they jockeyed for the most lucrative positions," he says. "Other confrontations took place between vendors and storeowners whose business was being undercut by vendors selling similar items in close proximity to their stores."

Mr. LePage says changes to the Safe Streets Act could result in greater violence on the streets and an increase in calls to the police.

"These ideas, while noble, aren't workable and viable within the context of how society works at this point," he says. "You can't take individuals who have problems integrating into mainstream society and by simply presenting them with an opportunity, such as part-time employment, believe that is going to forward their recovery."

The owners of a local establishment in the Market area say they've had it with repeated harassment of their customers by panhandlers and they won't be renewing their lease when it's up for renewal in a few years. Francis and Brigitte Caron, who have run the Siempre Tango dance school on Rideau Street since 1999, say they regularly receive complaints about the aggressive behaviour of the panhandlers who gather outside on the sidewalks.

"We recently did a survey of our customers and there is a perceived safety issue because of the panhandlers that is very strong," says Ms. Caron. "We've never had any violent incidents, but they have been rude and intimidating and that's its own kind of violence."

She adds that they have also had frequent thefts of patrons' belongings because the school's doors must remain unlocked. Despite the building's prime location for busing, the Carons say they are starting to look for another location.

However, as artists, they admit that the idea of encouraging the creation of arts and crafts does appeal to them.

"I would like to see someone making a bracelet and being productive as an artist," says Ms. Caron. "There should be something out there to help people get on their feet."

The spokesperson for the Rideau Centre says the mall's merchants also support the idea of employment opportunities and assistance for the city's homeless community, but they see unlicensed street vendoring as merely another form of panhandling that shouldn't be permitted.

"Opening our downtown streets to unlicensed, transient vendors who may or may not be 'homeless' will create a chaotic, unregulated retail environment that will negatively impact cleanliness, ambiance and safety as these vendors compete for the best 'corners' and locations," says marketing and licensing director Cindy VanBuskirk. "Aggressive panhandling and unlicensed street vendoring are not, in our view, productive, proactive or conducive to creating a successful and vital urban environment."

The Homelessness and Safe Streets Act task force recommendations will go to full city council on May 24 for consideration.