HOUSING URGED FOR ALCOHOL, DRUG USERS

Projects Would Reduce Harm, Conference Told

Toronto's homeless not only need more affordable housing; they need more
drug-tolerant housing.

That's the message from Beric German, a research co-ordinator with the
Street Health organization in Toronto, speaking at the First International
Conference on Inner City Health yesterday.

German calls it "harm reduction housing": long-term social-housing projects
that would permit a certain degree of drug and alcohol use. Residents could
be evicted for behaving inappropriately but not for drinking or using drugs.

"We have examples of this throughout the world," he said, but not in Toronto.

The four-day event, which ends today at a downtown hotel, was co-sponsored
by St. Michael's Hospital, the Ontario government and the Canadian
Institutes of Health Research.

German told the conference, attended by more than 320 physician researchers
and social scientists, that the results of a survey of 136 homeless drug
users in Toronto, conducted in 2000, indicate the need for harm-reduction
housing is clear.

According to the survey, 37.6 per cent of respondents were evicted from
their homes because they used drugs or alcohol. Often, these people
reported, their eviction only made their drug habit worse.

Funded by Health Canada's AIDS Community Action Program, the United Way and
Street Health, the study also found that most of those surveyed had not
applied for public housing. Many said they couldn't see the point of adding
their name to a multi-year waiting list or they'd already been permanently
barred from social housing.

Under the system proposed by German, such permanent bans would be a thing
of the past.

Many homeless drug users suffer from serious health problems, he said, and
putting them into cramped shelters only increases the spread of disease.
Consequently, they spend a lot of time in hospital emergency rooms, while
many wind up in prison.

"That's a very expensive way of housing them," German said.

By providing stable housing for people who are still on drugs, he added,
the spread of contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, could be curbed.

Harm-reduction housing would also include access to health facilities and
the supplies required to use drugs safely.

"You do have to put in money up front, but there will be a phenomenal
savings ultimately," German said. "It's not just about money; it's also
about human compassion."

Presentations at the conference spanned a variety of topics, including
inoculating street youth against hepatitis B, caring for prostitutes who
have been sexually assaulted, and the importance of catering to diabetic
diets in homeless shelters.

"The problems of inner-city health are complex. They require an
understanding of medicine and other social sciences," said Dr. Wendy
Levinson, acting director of the Inner City Health Research Unit at St.
Michael's Hospital.