POCO RESIDENTS OPPOSE HOUSING FOR RECOVERED ADDICTS

Subsidized housing intended for recovered addicts and alcoholics is
being put on hold after people in Port Coquitlam's Lincoln Park area
opposed the residence being located in their neighbourhood.

Rumours circulated that the society intended to put a drug and alcohol
recovery house in the neighbourhood. During a council meeting Monday,
one man speaking as a delegation said he wanted to stop what he called
a safe injection site from coming to the area.

But according to Hope For Freedom Society managing director Rob
Thiessen, many of the Lincoln Park residents are misinformed. His
organization was planning to locate subsidized housing in a rented
home in the Lincoln neighbourhood for former society clients, some of
whom have not touched drugs or alcohol in over four years, he said.

"They assumed it was going to be for a recovery house - it wasn't,"
Thiessen said.

He added the housing would have been subsidized units offered to
people who had completed the recovery process. With opposition from
the neighbours, Thiessen said his organization will now be looking
elsewhere for a similar home.

"Frankly our clients are now afraid to move into that neighbourhood,"
Thiessen said. "They expressed fear to the reaction from the
neighbourhood. They didn't want to live in a fishbowl."

He said any new project would involve consultation with the
surrounding neighbourhood, a process he had yet to carry out with the
original Lincoln proposal.

But Thiessen said it bothers him that he needs to make an announcement
and hold an open house for a rental property.

"We have been in this community for 12 years," he said. "We actually
have seven recovery houses with some people in the first stages of
recovery and we have an excellent reputation in the neighbourhoods we
are in."

Still, some residents fear having Hope For Freedom Society clients in
their neighbourhood.

Jacqueline Sauve received applause from the gallery during Monday's
council meeting after speaking out against the residence.

"If we hadn't of found out about this, it would have been in there,"
she said.

Sauve called on the city to do a better job of controlling where
recovery houses are located and what type of clients they accept.

She said all facilities should have a good-neighbour agreement and
clients' names should be turned over to the RCMP to ensure
neighbourhood safety.

Random bylaw checks, Sauve said, should also be considered for future
and current facilities.

She added that the city has allowed Hope For Freedom Society to
operate without a business licence, something both the city and the
society are in the process of rectifying.