DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE HEALTH FACILITIES APPROVED, BUT STILL FACE OPPOSITION

The Downtown Eastside may soon be getting expanded health and resource
centres to deal with the effects of drug addiction. Last Tuesday the
Vancouver Development Permit Board approved four applications for new
developments that will be built in the neighbourhood of Main and Hastings.

Over the three days of public hearings the board heard from a wide spectrum
of people supporting the applications and a small number of local residents
and business owners who opposed them. Board member Larry Beasley said he
understood the concerns of those who objected to the developments. "I have
heard a lot of fear and I'm sympathetic to that fear," said Beasley.

"But there's no indication that these facilities or the people they serve
will create a problem in the community."

The public hearings revealed that the drug issue has created a significant
amount of division in the Downtown Eastside.

Many of those who spoke against the developments were Chinese-Canadian
business owners. They accuse the city of harming the economic viability of
Chinatown by creating services that encourage drug users to congregate in
the area.

It is expected that an appeal will be made to the Vancouver Board of
Variance requesting that the permits be revoked.

In his speech before the permit board Dean Wilson, president of the
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), said that there would have to
be some concessions made by both sides in order for the facilities to be
successful. "I don't think I'm going to get everything I want and I don't
think the community alliance is going to get everything they want," Wilson
said.

According to the major players that supported the applications, there are
still a number of important needs that will not be addressed by the
facilities approved last Tuesday. One of these is the need for additional
treatment centres where addicts can receive detox services. Many addicts
have complained that detox centres have turned them away because of a lack
of space, or have put them on long waiting lists.

There is also indication that the new facilities will be part of a broader
initiative to change the way drug addiction is dealt with by government.
VANDU's Board of Directors has said that they would like to see
safe-injection sites and heroin maintenance programs introduced in Vancouver.

Jenny Kwan, Minister of Community Development and MLA for Vancouver-Mount
Pleasant, has also spoken in favor of programs that advocate the use of
heroin maintenance.

She says she has been impressed by drug treatment programs in Liverpool,
England, where some addicts are administered periodic doses of heroin by a
physician.

"These individuals are highly functional within the community," Kwan said
in a recent speech before VANDU members. "Many of them are employed and
they have families."

This assertion was questioned by a VANDU member who said that he could not
imagine a heroin user becoming a completely functional member of the
community. "I know that when I had just used heroin, I wasn't in a state
where I could go to work," the man said.

Kwan has also said that a more comprehensive approach to the drug problem
would have to look at housing issues. Kwan has suggested that providing
affordable housing to people with substance abuse problems may give them
the stability they need to deal with their addictions.

Supporters of affordable housing in the Downtown Eastside recently
celebrated a major victory with the provincial government's announcement
that they had purchased the Woodward's building and would be devoting 40
per cent of it to housing units. The site has been vacant since 1993.