HOME PROVIDES NEW START FOR ADDICTS

Treatment Centres Offer A Chance To Recover In Dignity

Kevin Craig sits in the living room of his new home at 512 Cecelia
Rd., a room with fresh buttery yellow paint, newly restored woodwork
and hardwood floors. He's far from one of the lowest points of his
life just over a year ago, when his home was on the streets of
Victoria, a prisoner of his alcohol addiction.

Craig, who once held a job in the furniture-making industry, looks at
his work with pride. He refurbished the badly worn-out wainscotting
while other recovering addicts took on the paint job and much-needed
cleanup for the house, which for the next several months will provide
what their counsellors call the "de-institutionalized setting" for
their long road to recovery.

"Here the guys feel they are part of something. They feel part of a
community, part of a brotherhood," said David Mitchell, facilitator
and counsellor for the Vancouver Island Addiction Recovery Society.

The two-storey home is a new residential treatment centre for men,
bought after a two-year search by the society in an attempt to ease
the strain of a long list of addicts waiting for their turn to
recover. It will add another 10 beds to the existing 18, which are
located in two existing supportive recovery homes in Victoria.

The original home, called Foundation House, opened seven years ago,
offering a 10-bed recovery facility -- also located on Cecelia Road
- -- for men who have been on the streets, in prison, treatment
facilities, emergency wards and mental institutions. The new centre
will act as a second-stage house for men who are further along in
their recovery and are given more freedom and responsibility, such as
cooking and cleaning for themselves.

"They are completely responsible for their recovery here," said Ken
Thomson, also a facilitator. No drugs or alcohol are permitted and
employees check in at each house several times a day.

The home will be a bridge to the third stage of recovery, an
eight-bed house where men live while working or going to school.

After reading a story in the Times Colonist about the society's
desperate need for a third home, two private donors, who prefer to
remain anonymous, pledged $150,000 each to buy the early 20th-century home.

Far from the "crack shacks and shooting galleries" that some detox
facilities resemble, the home is fit for a family, which instils the
sense of pride lost during life on the street, said Mitchell, himself
a recovered heroin addict.

Craig, 52, has been alcohol-free for a year and one month, his
longest time clean since he started drinking when he was 16 years
old. He eventually wants to go back to work, and said renovating the
house reminded him that he hasn't lost his skill. "When people come
in and say 'Boy, I sure like the house,' it gives you a sense of
personal satisfaction."

Five men have been living here since April and five more will move in
when the basement is furnished, work which will be done by the
residents themselves. But there are still about 50 people on the
waiting list, said Thomson.

Men can stay for as long as they want and pay $475 a month for room,
food and counselling. Men living in the homes are recovering from a
variety of addictions, from crystal meth, cocaine, heroin or alcohol.

The next step is to secure funding for an after-care program so
counsellors can track the progress of former addicts. He said several
men who have gone through the program are now thriving in successful
positions in the community.

"When they leave here we hope they take enough pride in themselves to
work to having a house like this," said Mitchell.

Anyone can donate to Foundation House by calling 250-480-1342.