ADDICT HOUSING OPPONENTS DEALT BLOW

To the chagrin of Kelowna business people, B.C.'s health minister
supports the "wet" model proposed for a downtown supportive-housing
project for alcoholics and drug addicts.

In an interview Friday, George Abbott said he's in favour of allowing
residents of the 30-apartment building to use drugs or alcohol if it
amounts to a stumble on their way to recovery.

"I think it's the right model. That has to be part of the continuum
of services. The aim is not to keep people addicted to their
addictions in the long term. It's trying to get them into a social
setting where we have an opportunity to . . . address their
addictions issues," Abbott said.

Members of Kelowna's downtown business community have formed a task
force to oppose the facility, which Interior Health proposed to build
on a city lot on St. Paul Street. Business people want the apartment
building moved out of the downtown and argue the wet model under the
harm-reduction strategy is wrong. They fear property values will drop
and customers will stay away.

"We don't support the approach of allowing ongoing use of drugs or
alcohol in a facility," said Jim Carta, spokesman for the St. Paul
Business Committee.

"We're disappointed the health minister would put forward a
methodology for dealing with drug-addiction issues when his own
premier's office says how the region deals with it is up to them."

Carta received a letter from Premier Gordon Campbell's office which
recognizes harm reduction as a strategy that "minimizes death,
disease and injury associated with high-risk behaviour, while
recognizing the behavior may continue despite the risk."

He says the premier's and mayors' task force on addictions and mental
illness doesn't formally adopt harm reduction, but it supports local
governments that choose to use it.

"We're allowing people to continue their addictions because it's good
for them," Carta said. "Why are we forgetting about the rights of
others to promote one group?"

The business committee has found little data that support the wet
model as a strategy to get people off their addictions, Carta said.
He calls it an experiment and accuses health officials of not knowing
its implications.

"They'll be learning as they go," he said.

Abbott said the building will be "very carefully managed." The wet
model may be more appropriate for homeless addicts who can't follow
the rules of abstinence in a dry facility, he said.

"The challenge is some people . . . don't get the recovery we hope
for within that model," he said. "We have to meet people often on
their own ground.

"We have to structure our response so it meets them -- not expect
them to suddenly become different people -- so that they make the
changes in an environment that they can live with."

The latest census in November 2004 found 420 homeless people were
living in Kelowna -- 130 on the street and 290 in shelters. Many are
addicted or have mental-health problems, making it hard for
authorities to help them.

The tenants selected to stay in the building must commit themselves
to recovery. If some are caught using a substance, they won't be
immediately returned to the street, where they could end up in the
hospital emergency room, said IH chair Alan Dolman.

"If you slip, you'll be sitting down with your counsellor at 8 the
next morning. If you repeatedly slip, then this program isn't for you
and you're out," he said.

"Most of us take for granted that we can take a shower and have a
meal and pee in a toilet. What happens if you can't? . . . If a
person is clean and in an environment where (he's) able to eat
properly, then we can continue to work on it."

Kelowna city council struck a committee to explore the choice of
location for the $4.5-million building. Members are expected to
present their report by the end of the month.

Meanwhile, the business committee is organizing a downtown rally on
Monday to express opposition to the project. Protesters will gather
outside the Pantry Restaurant at Harvey and Pandosy Street at 5 p.m.

Committee representative Mel Kotler said members invited Abbott to
meet with them while in Kelowna, but his office didn't reply.

"He hasn't responded to any of the e-mails we have forwarded to him
over the last two months," Kotler said.

"They (government) don't want to deal with the constituents who are
affected. They have their game plan and they don't want to change it.
They don't want to address our questions."