COUNCIL'S DELAY PUTS SHELTER AT RISK

City council has jeopardized the future of a women's emergency shelter by
delaying a decision by a week on whether to grant rezoning on a prospective
property, the proponent charged Tuesday.

Coun. John O'Fee was alone in opposing the motion to defer the decision to
Tuesday, one day after the offer to purchase expires on the project.
Councillors Brian Husband and Dave Gracey were absent from the public
hearing on the issue Tuesday night, which drew more than 20 people - about
half in favour, half against.

Kiwanis House, backed by the city social planning council and committee on
homelessness, is eligible for $250,000 in funding to buy and renovate the
house at 467 St. Paul St. to be used as an emergency shelter for women.

Kiwanis executive director Marg Marshall said council's deferral puts a
question mark on the project.

"It could possibly cancel the entire project," she said.

The project involves a five-bed shelter staffed 24 hours a day. Women who
have nowhere else to go - sober or under the influence of drugs or alcohol,
suffering from mental illness or other problems - would be able to stay at
the house on a short-term basis while staff try to find help and programs
for them.

"These kinds of issues can stimulate the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)
syndrome," she said.

"It can only get better with the services we're providing."

One resident from the area and a man who owns a business property on
400-block St. Paul Street spoke against the shelter being located downtown,
where crime problems are rife.

Gloria Fraser said she represented residents from the area and those who
would like to move into apartments or condominiums downtown.

"This is a bad idea," she said, suggesting the shelter would be better
situated in an urban area with trees and gardens.

"They do not need to be in the mess the downtown is in."

She said the drug dealers and pimps will hang around the shelter, waiting
to prey on the vulnerable women inside.

Robert Daniele, who owns a business property across the street from the
proposed shelter, said he cleans up needles, garbage, condoms and other
trash left by drug dealers and pimps frequenting the area.

"Unless you live there, you'll never believe what goes on," he said.

O'Fee asked him if he had problems from the nightclub behind his business
and from the house with its current tenants. Daniele said yes to both
questions. But he felt the shelter staff would be dealing with the women
inside, and not with the associated problems outside the building.

Marshall said a security company will be called upon when needed, as well
as the police.

In her 20 years with the Phoenix Centre, a detox program, and her three
years with Kiwanis, security has not been a problem, she said. There will
be strict rules, she added.

"This isn't a hotel where you can come and go."

Gwenn Cutler, who filled in for Marshall when she was off the last few
months, attended a meeting of the Downtown Residents Association to talk
about the project. There is also a rezoning application sign on the
property. But some council members felt more effort should have been made
to contact people living in the area.

Mayor Mel Rothenburger said there was a lack of explanation to the
neighbours on what the shelter would entail.

Coun. Peter Sharp said while many seniors live in the downtown, often
they're reluctant to come out to a public hearing or any meeting.

Coun. Pat Wallace said she was torn. She understood the worries of those in
the area, but as she herself lives in the downtown, she has seen the crime
and the women being kicked around.

"It's the human suffering that concerns me the most."

O'Fee didn't understand why it should be put off. Kiwanis House has a good
reputation, and there are detox programs in Kamloops situated right beside
elementary schools (Phoenix Centre and House of Ruth).

"If this thing falls apart, we've lost a quarter of a million dollars in
federal funding and these people (the homeless women) are still in the
community."