NEIGHBOURS HAVE MORE PROOF TO OPPOSE ADDICT HOTELS

The front-page story about Helga Knippelberg's plight is the best
example of why people don't welcome dually-diagnosed drug addicts to
family-oriented communities like Dunbar, where 30-to-50 bed addict
hotels are proposed.

The Sun profiled her son Ronald, a schizophrenic crack/heroin addict,
with a long criminal record of property crime and violent assault,
who set fire to his mother's house because she refused to provide any
more drug money. Like many dually-diagnosed addicts, he'd failed
treatment programs and refused medication.

Emergency response teams have visited their home many times. The most
recent incident involved 38 firefighters and 11 trucks. So how
exactly does providing "housing" to addicts reduce the cost of
emergency personnel and ambulance calls? If we tallied 911 calls to
the many Downtown Eastside addict hotels, we'd find an equally large
amount of wasted health care and police resources. The "Compassion
Club" of City Hall and Vancouver Coastal Health would have us believe
that by merely providing free housing, without security, mandatory
drug testing or any meaningful restrictions, these individuals will
miraculously become productive citizens.

Ronald Knippelberg should be locked up in a psychiatric institution
with onsite medical staff and 24-hour security because he's a danger
to himself and others. However, the provincial New Democratic and
Liberal governments felt otherwise, closing Riverview and dumping
these people in the Downtown Eastside. That's why I support NIABY.com
(Not In Anyone's Backyard) and am proud of it.

Cheryl Savchenko

Vancouver