DRUG TREATMENT FACILITY WILL CLOSE

A woman-focused residential drug and alcohol treatment facility says
it's closing the doors on its treatment programs this weekend, leaving
eight women searching for safe, affordable housing.

Created to fill a void when another treatment facility shut its doors
in 2001, The Canon Addiction Place Society has spent four years
struggling to meet bills with minimal rent payments contributed by
their clients.

But this month it became too much.

"We couldn't obtain the funding to continue," said Wanda MacKinnon,
director and facility owner.

CAPS opened with the belief that funds left over from the centre they
were trying to replace could be transferred from Interior Health
Authority coffers to their establishment, but quickly discovered that
wasn't the case.

Last March they received $19,000 in emergency interim funding from the
Interior Health Authority to try and keep the doors open.

The IHA does contract out certain services, a process which requires a
service provider bid on a contract, competing with other private facilities.

No contract similar to the CAPS service has surfaced for the society
to bid on, according to MacKinnon.

CAPS is committed to helping the women find safe affordable housing
and says no one will be left on the street.

But many of the women are still without a place to go; two of them are
over 60 years old.

The CAPS program is based on a harm reduction model.

The society received plenty of referrals from the community, with
clients even coming from as far as Alberta and the coast.

However, charging just $400 a rent, the founders could not keep up
with the mortgage, utilities, food and program costs which included
everything from medications to bus tickets, depending on the
assistance required.

At the Kalano Club, a social club for those coping with addictions,
manager Sue Franczak said the society's contributions will be missed.
"It's awful," she said. "You have no idea how many women-we see who
need a safe place to go.

"We feel so frustrated."