CITY PRESSURED SOCIETY TO DITCH ADDICTS' HOUSING PLAN

Last year, when the Turning Point Society withdrew a rezoning
application for a housing project for recovering addicts, it sounded
like it was Turning Point's idea.

But documents obtained by the News under the Freedom of Information
Act show it wasn't the society's idea at all -- it was done under
pressure from city hall, which made it clear city staff and council
would reject the proposal.

In a news release she hastily cobbled together in June 2008 while on
vacation in Utah, Brenda Plant, executive director for the society,
wrote that she had decided to withdraw the application.

"It was pretty clear a revised rezoning application would still have
encountered many challenges," she said in the release, which ended up
being massaged by BC Housing before being released. "So we've decided
to withdraw it entirely."

E-mails between city hall, BC Housing and Plant show Plant was
pressured into the decision. In fact, she was positively rushed into
it.

And the documents suggest the reason for the urgency may have had
something to do with a looming municipal election.

The society's 32-bed supportive housing proposal for Ash Street would
have required a rezoning to increase the density of the property. The
proposal met with significant public opposition from neighbours, who
didn't like the idea of recovering addicts being housed in a
residential neighbourhood.

The rezoning was to come forward to the city's planning committee in
the summer of 2008, just before council was to take its summer break.

That means that whatever decision the committee made, city council
would have to ratify it when city council resumed sitting at the end
of summer -- just three months before a November civic election. City
staff already had their minds made up about the proposal, it appears.

"I have been asked to discuss this with you because the alternative is
sending forward a negative staff report on the existing application
due to the considerable community opposition last year and the poor
fit of what was being proposed and the community in which the proposal
is located," Brian Jackson, the city's director of development, said
in an e-mail to BC Housing, which then relayed that message to Plant.

The city gave assurances that, if the application was withdrawn, staff
would work with BC Housing and Turning Point on a revised application
for a 10-bed facility in January 2009.

Plant was on vacation in Utah when she got an urgent message from BC
Housing asking her to withdraw the application. Using a blackberry,
she wrote back that she was sorry to hear of the new development "as
it is quite contrary to the strategy we were working on with VCH, PHSA
and our local MLA."

She said she would like to consult with her staff and formally
withdraw the application after she returned from holidays on July 7,
2008. But BC Housing wrote back saying "we need to do this today."

"Dare I ask why the city needs this done today?" Plant wrote back. If
she got a written answer to that question, it is not in the documents
obtained by the News. Plant is still working with BC Housing and the
city, and is reluctant to talk about what killed the proposal.

"We were advised that we were not going to get staff support based on
the location and public opposition," Plant said. Indeed, ministerial
briefing notes to Rich Coleman -- minister of Housing and Social
Development -- suggest city council already had its mind made up
before the proposal even got before the city's planning committee.

"City staff advised that the project would be rejected by City Council
if the rezoning application proceeded," the briefing notes state.

Coun. Linda Barnes, a strong supporter of social housing, said: "I
don't believe anybody on council directed anyone on staff to withdraw
it." But, confirming no elected body likes controversy before an
election, she said: "You don't want to get painted in a corner ...
during an election." Plant said she's still working with the city and
BC Housing for a 10-bed recovery home.