FEDS TO STUDY IDEA OF SUBSIDIZED HOUSING FOR ACTIVE DRUG, ALCOHOL ADDICTS

(CP) - The federal government is looking for new types of subsidized
housing for drug users and alcoholics - housing that could include
safe-injection sites.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the government's housing agency,
is launching a study to look at alternative residential programs for
substance users who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

"We want to look at that population and how people are already helping
them, or the kinds of cutting-edge ideas on how we can best create
long-term housing for this group," said Jim Zamprelli, a senior policy
researcher at CMHC.

While there are already many shelters and other facilities for the homeless
across the country, most will only admit people who are not drunk or high
on drugs.

The new federal initiative, which focuses on the concept of harm reduction,
is aimed at helping addicts get a roof over their heads without having to
quit immediately.

"Harm reduction, at least theoretically, would create an environment which
doesn't bar (substance users) and recognizes that at this point maybe
complete abstinence is not the answer," said Zamprelli.

The new type of housing could include rooms where junkies could inject
drugs in a supervised environment - similar to the safe-injection site that
opened last month in Vancouver, said Zamprelli.

"One could suggest building a living environment around a safe injection
facility."

Vancouver's centre gives drug users clean injection kits and allows them to
shoot up under nurse supervision.

The centre is aimed at preventing overdoses along with the transmission of
disease that can occur when needles are shared. After finishing, the drug
users are taken to a "chill out room" where they can receive counselling.

It is that kind of gradual withdrawal from drugs and alcohol, along with
counselling, that may work well in a residential setting, said Zamprelli.

But the idea of using taxpayer money to house active drug users does not
sit well with Canadian Alliance MP Randy White, who argues that making life
more comfortable for junkies will only allow them to keep using.

"This idea of harm reduction is not reducing harm. It's keeping people on
drugs," he said.

"We have so many people earning less than an average income who are having
to live in substandard facilities in this country but are trying to make
their way in life.

"And here, these federal Liberals are turning around and taking people who
are on drugs and giving them places to shoot up and places to live that are
in better shape than those who aren't addicted."

Zamprelli said that giving drug users a roof over their heads could help
them break the cycle of getting high and sleeping on the streets.

"The idea is to create a stable environment to work with these people to
deal with, ultimately, their addiction and hopefully reach a point at which
they reduce their intake or maybe totally go dry."

A decision on the new housing is a long way off.