FLOATING TREATMENT CENTRE SOLVES SEVERAL PROBLEMS AT ONCE

Decommissioned Ferries Might Be Perfect Vehicle For Such A Plan

Roy Howard wants to float an idea.

It involves boats.

And drugs.

Howard is 72, and lives in Victoria. He is a recently retired
vocational instructor at Camosun College. He learned something over
his 24 years there about rehabilitation and self-esteem, he said, and
how one leads to the other. On the phone, he sounded like a man
willing to entertain practical solutions, as a vocational instructor
might.

Three years ago, Howard attended a workshop where a Surrey cop came in
and talked about the growing crystal meth problem overtaking his city.
It was a problem, the cop said, that was also growing in Victoria.
Exacerbating that problem, the cop said, was the woeful lack of
treatment centres.

This point was driven home when an actual meth addict stood up in the
audience and said he wanted treatment but couldn't find any because
the few beds that were available to addicts were all taken. Where, he
wanted to know, could he go to get treatment?

No one in the audience, Howard said, had an answer for him. Somebody
mentioned some place in the Okanagan and somebody thought they knew of
a place up-island, but neither knew if they had beds available. Other
than that, Howard said, the audience was silent.

And the reason for that silence, Howard thought, was while everyone
thought treatment centres for addicts were a good thing, in principle,
no one wanted to entertain the idea of an actual treatment centre in
their neighbourhood. Thus, few centres are available, because building
them is politically unpalatable. It's the result of the universal
NIMBY reaction, Howard thought (and, in regards to treatment centres,
one we have seen repeatedly here in Vancouver).

So Howard got to thinking. About a year and a half ago, the thought
struck him.

"I realized they had no place to build (treatment centres) on land,
because nobody wanted them in their neighbourhood. So I thought, why
not build them on the water?"

His idea was simple: Build a treatment centre on a barge with
prefabricated housing units, and then anchor the barge out in the water.

"When I first started to shop the idea around, people thought I wanted
to put the barge in Victoria harbour and anchor it dockside. They
thought I was crazy. And that would be crazy, because that would be
putting the addicts right back into environment where they got their
drugs. They could walk onshore and get a fix whenever they wanted. And
what good would that do?"

Howard wanted something more distant. His choice was the end of
Finlayson Arm, the fjord-like inlet that the Malahat Drive skirts west
of Victoria. It was becalmed water and utterly isolated, Howard said,
and a short drive for any health professionals who might work in the
treatment centre. The centre could be anchored out in the middle of
the arm, where it would be reachable only by water taxi.

The barge idea solved several problems, Howard thought. It takes the
addicts out of the environment that keeps them addicted; it physically
separates the pushers from their clientele; it's a vastly cheaper
alternative to a land-based centre, where land costs and acquisition
are a concern, especially in a place like Victoria where real estate
prices are prohibitive; it momentarily solves the addicts' housing
problem; it identifies those addicts who truly want to get off drugs,
because there would be an element of confinement to their treatment;
it eliminates the NIMBY problem, since the centre would be on water
and in a part of the Island where there were almost no residential
areas, while still being close enough to Victoria to attract health
professionals.

So, set with his idea, Howard started talking to groups and people who
might be interested. What he found was universal antipathy. Well,
almost universal antipathy. "When I told the 'normal Joe citizen'
about it -- you know, friends, neighbours, just your average citizen
- -- they all thought, what a great idea! But I noticed that when I
talked to groups who had a stake in this, like groups who were trying
to get their next government grant for their project, or politicians,
they would say it was a silly idea."

When he wrote Premier Gordon Campbell about it, he got the following
back from Housing
Minister Rich Coleman: "Premier Gordon Campbell has forwarded me your
e-mail describing
your idea for creating a floating addiction rehabilitation facility.
As Minister
Responsible for Housing, I thank you for your commitment to finding solutions.

"My staff have reviewed the information and will keep it on file for
future reference. In the development of your proposal, I suggest you
discuss the provision of the services you describe with an established
non-profit agency currently providing residential addiction and
rehabilitation services. Any development of this magnitude would
require the active support of an established agency that provides
similar services.

"It is evident that you have a real commitment to addressing the needs
of people suffering from drug use. It is the dedication and efforts of
individuals like you that make this province such a great community in
which to live."

There are so many things wrong with that letter it's hard to know
where to start. There's the rote, dismissive hooey that's meant to
appease but only insults -- "you have a real commitment," "the efforts
of individuals like you." And there is barely concealed kiss-off, with
the promise to "keep it on file." Would that be the circular file?

But the killer is Coleman's assertion that an idea like Howard's would
need "the active support of an established agency that provides
similar services." Not, would this work? Not, is this do-able? But,
why are you talking to us? Go away and bother some "non-profit
agency." Keep it within the family of government-grant-getters and
social-welfare-industry regulars.

This is thinking within the box within a box. And it disheartened
Howard because he began to believe he was alone in his idea.

Then, two weeks ago, Howard read an editorial in the Victoria Times
Colonist written by Dave Obee, editor of the editorial pages. Obee
suggested that the newly retired B.C. ferries -- the Queens of
Tsawwassen, Esquimalt, Vancouver and Saanich -- be donated during the
Vancouver Olympic Games and used as accommodation for the RCMP's
security forces stationed here. The RCMP had suggested chartering
luxury cruise liners for $5 million (surely a low guesstimate), but
the old ferries, which already had state rooms, washrooms and
cafeterias, could be retrofitted more cheaply for the few weeks they
would be needed.

Aha, Howard thought, his idea wasn't as crazy as he had been led to
believe.

It also got him thinking about those ferries. Why not use them as
treatment centres? You could have one on the Island, and one anchored
off the Lower Mainland. And while you're at it, why not think about
using them as shelters for the homeless? Prague and Paris both have
dockside floating homeless shelters.

Last year, faith-based groups in Hawaii faced with a huge increase in
homeless numbers tried to obtain a decommissioned U.S. Navy tender for
a floating homeless shelter.

Obviously, people there don't think the idea is out to sea. Why not
see if it holds water here?