HELP FOR THE HOMELESS

$7.6 Million Pledged To Help Deal With Homelessness, Mental Illness,
Addictions

The Vancouver Island Health Authority will supply $7.6 million for
measures to ease Victoria's homeless crisis, including new detox beds
and specialized outreach teams.

The announcement was made yesterday, moments after the unveiling of
the City of Victoria task-force report Breaking the Cycle of Mental
Illness, Addictions and Homelessness, aimed at finding ways to reduce
the number of people living on the street.

The largest chunk of cash is earmarked for 15 adult detox/residential
treatment beds ($1.7 million) and creation of four community/treatment
outreach teams, at a cost of $3.35 million. The teams, a cornerstone
recommendation of the task force, will offer support and treatment for
clients where they live, be that in parks, on the street, in shelters
or in supportive housing.

A "housing-first" strategy, in which priority is given to finding
homes for people on the street, regardless of their mental-health and
substance-abuse issues, is the other cornerstone of the
recommendations.

The outreach teams, to be established in the next year, are to include
mental-health, substance-abuse and social-service specialists with
shared caseloads and low staff-to-client ratios. They will be on call
24 hours a day. One team will focus on individuals with significant
criminal records and a history of behavioural problems.

The expert panel on the task force said similar outreach teams were
credited with reducing hospital admissions in Ontario by 62 per cent
after one year, and 83 per cent after six years.

Victoria police found that 324 homeless residents -- many with
mental-illness or substance-abuse problems or both -- were behind
23,033 police encounters over a period of 40 months, at an estimated
cost to the city of $9.2 million.

Supporting the teams will be two new case managers assigned to help
those leaving the hospital and correctional facilities, at a cost of
$200,000.

Dr. Perry Kendall, provincial health officer and chairman of the
expert panel, said the current system for delivering services is
complex and difficult to negotiate, especially for people with mental
illness and substance-abuse problems. Because they're required to move
from one service to another, they often fall through the cracks. He
noted a study of injection-drug users showed that half had obtained
treatment in the previous year, while 30 per cent tried unsuccessfully
to obtain treatment.

The health authority also earmarked $1 million toward building the
$4.6-million Downtown Health Access Centre, a Victoria Cool Aid
Society project planned for its Johnson Street building. The centre
will provide one-stop health services to homeless people. It replaces
a program that Cool Aid board chairman Andrew Benson said is "bursting
at the seams" at its Swift Street location.

Benson said he is pleased with the VIHA commitment but anxiously
awaiting word on applications for another $1.5 million from the
province and $500,00 to $700,000 from the Capital Regional District
before construction can begin in March. The balance would be raised
through donations.

A home and day detox program will receive $240,000, while a similar
amount will go to train 10 homeless people who are ready to rejoin the
workforce for jobs with the health authority.

The funding announcement also earmarked $600,000 to help the
hard-to-house homeless, who will take up residence at a new 45-bed
facility on Pandora Street. The facility, run by Our Place Society, is
scheduled to open in November.

Kendall said the current system lacks co-ordination between
mental-health and addiction services. Clients trying to obtain
mental-health services are often rejected because they have
addictions, while the same is true for those with mental-health
problems trying to obtain addiction services.

VIHA yesterday earmarked $100,000 to train outreach workers to support
clients with both mental-health and addiction problems.