HOUSING TASK FORCE PUSHES AHEAD IN SELECTING SITE

The Supportive Housing Site Task Force is pushing ahead with its
selection of a location for a 30-unit complex that will house homeless
people dealing with mental illness and addictions, despite continued
pressure from the public to keep the facility away from the downtown.

The controversy over the housing project began when the City of
Kelowna originally designated the site to 1432 St. Paul Street.

Area businesses objected to that location and have been pressuring the
city and the task force to examine the positive and negative elements
of a downtown location.

Their primary concern is that more drug dealers and addicts will be
drawn to an area already struggling with an existing drug problem.

"We have to keep getting people educated about the options," said Jim
Carta of the St. Paul Business Community. "We have to look at this
facility through a Kelowna context and what works for this city."

The St. Paul Business Community held a meeting on Wednesday and hosted
RCMP Supt. Bill McKinnon.

He echoed the business community's concerns with a downtown location
for the site.

He said that if drugs were found in the facility, culprits would be
treated like any other offender.

"It's no different than any other apartment block," McKinnon told the
Capital News yesterday. "We need reasonable and probable grounds of
any kind of crime."

While adding his support for any facility that will help people
addicted to drugs, he said drug-related issues do take up a great deal
of his officers' time.

"We spend more than 80 per cent of our time on drug-related problems
and if we can help these people who are addicted to drugs in any way,
I'm totally in favour of that."

The proposed facility is set to house individuals who may be in the
process of dealing with their addictions.

According to Interior Health, the harm reduction model is designed to
reduce a person's harmful behaviour, not necessarily eliminate it right
away.

Individuals will be put through therapy, which does not initially
require complete abstinence from a given substance.

A downtown location was originally selected because of its proximity
to services deemed necessary for the tenants of the building.

Access to employment resources, health care and education facilities
all suited a downtown location.

However due to the public's dismay at being excluded from the site
selection process, the City of Kelowna appointed a task force to
revise the location and work to develop a strategy to select a site
that would suit all parties concerned.

The 13-member task force includes individuals representing Interior
Health, the Downtown Kelowna Association and various representatives
from the community, including the city's town centres.

Since January, a number of public meetings discussing the details of
the site selection criteria have taken place.

On Wednesday, the task force agreed on a working list of 15 conditions
that will help determine the location of the housing site.

The next step is for the public to add any more criteria they believe
are necessary.

The site selection process suggested by the city is designed to offer
locations that fit a weighted number of criteria selected by the task
force and the public.

Once that criteria is finalized, members of the task force will weight
them according to what they see is important to them.

A downtown location may or may not be selected because of how each
individual weights certain criteria.

Selecting the criteria has not been easy, but members of the task
force have been satisfied with what has been picked so far.

However, once the selection of the criteria is complete, the next
challenge is determining how effective the process is in choosing a
site.

"I just want to make sure we get the sober second look at the
locations," said Weldon Leblanc of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce. "I
want to be sure that in practical terms, the selection process
actually works."

The city will examine the proposed sites and make the final decision
on a location.

A list of the current selected criteria will be published for the
public to make additions to and the city encourages people to contact
them with any suggestions and/or recommendations regarding the site
criteria.

For more information on the project, check the city's website at
http://www.city.kelowna.bc.ca/CM/Page1017.aspx or call the supportive
housing hotline at 469-8450.