DRUG-HOME PLAN FLOATED

Project is one man's dream, but does it hold water?

There's a small envelope attached to the door at Ray Howard's home.
It's a message for 15-year-old Ashley, the little girl from down the
street whom Howard and his wife used to treat like a
granddaughter.

She doesn't come around any more. Howard says she was both pushed and
pulled to the street - pushed by a troubled home life and pulled by
the seductions of crystal meth. But Howard holds out hope that she'll
come around again and if she does, she might read the note.

"It basically says, 'If you stay off drugs until you're 18 years old,
I'll buy you a Miata,'" Howard says.

The semi-retired college professor looks like a thin Santa Claus and
has a friendly, infectious laugh to match. He's desperate to help
people like Ashley get off Victoria's streets and off drugs.

He's collected dozens of newspaper articles: "Tough action needed to
help homeless," "Better a hand up than a hand out," "Helping homeless
a good investment" - reminders of Victoria's twin sisters of
despair: homelessness and drug addiction.

"Everybody wants something done, but nobody does anything," he said.

The articles are glued to huge sheets of red poster paper and strewn
across the stove.

It is one of the few surfaces left bare in his kitchen. The
countertops and small kitchen table are already home to a
paper-and-glue miniature world - scale models representative of
Howard's solution to the city's lack of treatment beds and affordable
housing, a project he's dubbed "Homes On Water."

The idea for Homes On Water came to Howard one day when he saw Camosun
College students in the trade school working on identical 10-foot
homes to practise framing and drywalling skills.

Howard envisioned using these homes (which are usually dismantled at
the end of the term), as places for detox, treatment and
rehabilitation beds.

But where? The price of land in Victoria is skyrocketing in direct
correlation to the rate it is being consumed for development.

"The answer seems to be to put them on water," he says.

Howard, who has lived in mining and logging camps, envisions a similar
style of housing built on barge floats with common kitchen, cafeteria,
recreation and bath areas.

Each individual home would have space enough for a bunk bed, storage
locker, a TV and personal effects. They would also be pet friendly.

Howard's miniature world model even includes green plastic turf that
he drapes across the roofs to demonstrate where the gardens could grow.

Howard has a smaller scale model of the houses that shows how they
would look on the floats. In this model, the homes are represented by
sugar cubes dyed with food colouring and placed on three interlinked
floats.

The first float would be a detox centre that would hold 80 to 160
living modules. There would be an area for staff, a kitchen, washers,
dryers, showers and toilets. There would also be a shelter. Howard
says prescription drugs could also be administered by supervising staff.

The beauty about having the detox centre off land is it cuts the the
drug dealers off from people seeking treatment, he added.

The second float would be the treatment centre, with 40 to 50
accommodation modules. This area would have counselling staff, a
kitchen area, computers, and a program space.

The third barge would be the self-esteem and education centre, with 40
accommodation modules. It would also offer counselling and job training.

"The part that's neat is the modules could be built cheaply, neatly
and quickly."

By using the classroom-built modules, Howard estimates the homes would
only cost $2,500 each.

The total cost to build the three centres would be $1.2 million, he says.

Howard realizes the optics of putting drug-addicted people on a
"barge" and floating them out to sea are bad.

"But they are allowed to leave anytime they want," he said. "It's not
a jail, it's not a leper colony."

Howard's plan has found some support from the Crystal Meth Society of
B.C.

"I just think it's an amazing plan and we've got to start thinking
outside of the box to house these people," said Marilyn Erickson,
outreach co-ordinator with the society. "The Crystal Meth Society
certainly feels that addicts need and want an opportunity to turn
their lives around at some point. They cannot possibly do it without
adequate support and one of the things that they need a roof over
their heads... I certainly appreciate Ray's tenacity and creative spirit."

Howard admits the idea is a bit off the wall. There's always the
question of where to moor these floats. In front of Shoal Point? The
Inner Harbour? Off Willows Beach? NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard)
exists just as much on water as it does on land.

But for the critics, Howard asks: "OK, show me a better idea?"

He's hoping to present the project to Victoria City Hall.