BELAIRE RECOVERY HOUSE CLOSES DOORS FOR GOOD

The society that ran the recovery house is looking for another non-profit
group to take over its facility which was expanded and renovated almost
three years ago.

The final paperwork involved in winding up the operation of Belaire House,
a local drug and alcohol recovery house for women, is now being done and
places have been found for the last client.

Executive-director Paula Kleiman was doing some last-minute tidying up in
the empty 10-bed facility Friday. "It's a tragedy that the clients lost a
needed facility," she said. "It will cost way more to care for these women
in hospitals, in jail or in care homes."

She said everyone knows a women's recovery home is needed here, but because
the provincial government would not fund a union-negotiated raise and the
addition of benefits for staff, the society had to close the house.

Both the government and the union are to blame, she added, because the
union filed grievances against the volunteers operating the facility which
finally led to the closure.

In the 13 years the recovery house has been operating there have been many
success stories, she noted. "Some would come back for reunions and they'd
been three years clean and sober. Others have their children back."

George Heyman, president of the B.C. Government Employees Union blames the
Liberals for the closure.

"It takes a lot of support by experienced, trained counsellors and care
aides to overcome an addiction to drugs or alcohol," Heyman said. " The
fact is, without Belaire, there will be more women in Kelowna unable to
beat their addictions. That means more women homeless and on the street,
more broken families and more pain.

"This funding cut isn't just heartless, it's cruel. The Liberal government
just doesn't care about the damage they're doing to lives and communities."

Kleiman said the society operating Belaire House is now looking for a
non-profit group to take over the building, because of some of the funding
grants involved.

Society president Micki Smith said the building is really only suitable for
a group home, and it's zoned for that use. However, a few organizations
have expressed interest.

During the next month the society's volunteers will have to do the
paperwork to dissolve the society and find a buyer for the house.

"We'd hoped someone might come along. It's been difficult for all of us.
We'd hoped we could pull a rabbit out of a hat," she said.