interesting. we had a rather sudden influx of homeless people here in vancouver for a number of years, and during that time the police let them get away with all sorts of things. i had an altercation with a drug addicted woman who punched me in the face right in front of a cop and he refused to press charges, telling me i had to go see a judge myself to get permission! the homeless problem dwindled about as suddenly as it appeared, but it has always been pretty bad. ever since immigrants started flooding in and the job market changed when industry disappeared in exchange for shit service-industry jobs, it has been a different world.