COUNCIL IN FINAL DELIBERATION ABOUT CONTROVERSIAL REHAB CENTRE

Council will decide Tuesday whether to endorse a controversial
proposal for a 39-unit rehab centre on Fraser Street for mentally ill
drug addicts.

Last week, dozens of opponents and proponents of the project lined up
to speak about the issue during two nights of public hearings.

Opponents argue the centre will put children at nearby schools in
danger and that another location should be considered. The site is
less than a block north of John Oliver secondary and two blocks west
of Mackenzie elementary.

Others maintain the centre should be scaled down until advocates can
prove to the neighbourhood it won't create problems.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and Triage Emergency Services
Society are behind the initiative, which would be funded by the
Vancouver Agreement. Only drug and alcohol-free candidates would be
housed in the four-storey complex that would be staffed by two
employees from Triage.

Rob Whitlock, a senior housing planner at city hall, said council will
offer advice to the Development Permit Board, which will likely render
a decision about the rehab facility in February or March. The public
will have the opportunity to voice opinions again during the board's
hearings.

"Council can't tell the Development Permit Board what to do, but I
would think an opinion of council would be weighed fairly heavily,"
Whitlock said.

Once the board issues a decision, it could be appealed to the Board of
Variance by the losing side.

Whitlock admitted the public consultation for the rehab centre has
been flawed. "Obviously, the process is not a very good one [since]
everybody doesn't know what's going on," he said. "They get upset.
They react, in my view, to fears that will not exist with this
facility. We need to somehow reinvent the process so there's a better
understanding all the way around."

Whitlock said many in the community don't understand the illnesses of
clients who will be housed in the facility. They also don't realize
the residents will be "dry."

He doesn't believe decreasing the number of units at the centre is
possible because the residence and the care it would provide is based
on supportive apartment living.

"It would be difficult to work through that model with a smaller
number of units," he said.

He rejected criticism the health authority doesn't have experience
with similar rehab centres, therefore it can't guarantee there will be
no problems. Whitlock said many of the health authority's residences
range in size from 12 to 50 units and are known as "wet" facilities,
which means residents may still be using drugs and alcohol.

"The difficulty I have is speculating that this would be a worse
situation than ones where alcohol and drugs are used. I mean it's got
to be better if the residents are abstaining from drugs and alcohol,"
he said.

He added the health authority has never had a problem resulting from a
"wet" rehab centre near a school.