DRUG-FREE ADDICTS' REFUGE PROPOSED

Plans for a drug-free refuge for intravenous drug users in Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside have been unveiled by the Vancouver-Richmond Health
Board.

The facility, scheduled to open in June, would offer drug users a
place off the streets to shower, have a cup of coffee or use the telephone.

It would also offer employment training opportunities to those wishing
to work at the centre, and provide access to community services such
as counselling, outreach, detox and treatment.

Health board vice-chair Robyn Woodward described the centre as a
"bridge to rebuild people's lives."

Details of the budget for the centre won't be worked until November,
but Health Canada has contributed about $1 million to the project.

The centre proposal was developed by a committee that included
injection drug users. The users will also be involved in operating the
facility.

"They wanted to be part of the solution and didn't want to be
considered the problem down there," Woodward said.

The resource centre was proposed a year ago after Vancouver declared
an emergency public health crisis in the Downtown Eastside, where
there are an estimated 11,700 regular injection drug users.

It is estimated about 28 per cent of drug users in the area are
HIV-positive, and hepatitis C is also rampant.

It is also expected that 225 people will die of overdoses in the
Vancouver-Richmond Health unit -- half of those in the Downtown
Eastside, said Jack Altman, vice-president of community health
services for the board.

The facility will be located somewhere in a quadrant between Hastings
Street, Campbell Avenue, Columbia Street and Waterfront, Vancouver
police Inspector Ken Doern said.

"A year ago, what was happening was a real cry of pain and suffering
was being expressed by a lot of the drug users on the Downtown
Eastside," said board member Bud Osborne, a former addict.

"This is sort of an immediate safe place for people who have no place
to go."

Osborne who quit using drugs six years ago, said his salvation was a
friend who allowed him to stay in his home and have access to his
shower, meals and telephone.

"These are the things that sustained me from being homeless on the
street to getting into detox," he said.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry