FED UP OVER UNCONTROLLED RECOVERY HOMES

An estimated 40 alcohol and drug recovery homes in this city remain
completely unregulated, despite a decade-long call for controls to
protect clients.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts has made regulating the industry one of her
missions since finding a woman's recovery home in Panorama Ridge in
the late 1990s where children were packed four and five to a room.

At the time there were an estimated 50 recovery homes in Surrey and
reports of client abuse were rampant.

They continue today, and Watts is fed up over a lack of action on the
part of the province.

Bruce Ralston, the NDP MLA for Surrey-Whalley, said his riding is
feeling the impact of recovery home operators taking advantage of clients.

"Certainly in my part of Surrey, it's a problem. There are some good
ones that take care of themselves, but when you have a bad one, the
problem spills out into the neighbourhood," Ralston said. "I think
some kind of regulation is required."

He prefers the recommendation put forward by Surrey's Crime Reduction
Strategy, where a board with professionals from housing and health
would oversee the homes.

Last Tuesday, unlicensed recovery homes came up in the B.C.
legislature, when NDP Leader Carol James hammered the Liberals over
their deregulation of recovery homes in 2002.

"Why are communities still waiting for the B.C. Liberals to fix a
problem that they created when they deregulated these homes?" James
asked Health Minister George Abbott, who shot back that it was the
NDP who created onerous rules that nearly shut down important
services such as Vancouver's Union Gospel Mission.

Watts is tired of the finger pointing and wants something done about it.

Each party shares the blame for the current situation, she says.

"We asked the provincial government back in the day to have a special
provision for drug and alcohol recovery homes," Watts said. "And
their response to that was it's a housing issue. It's not a housing
issue, it's a health issue."

An attempt to make them comply with the Community Care Facilities Act
in the late '90s was onerous and costly, causing many good homes to shut down.

The Liberals deregulated them in 2002, and that's the way they remain.

"Again it's something beyond our jurisdiction we've been trying to
get movement on, in almost 10 years - and nothing," Watts said.

She points out there are several good recovery homes in this city,
but a system without any controls is subject to abuse.

"It's when there are individuals taking advantage of vulnerable
people, and the government is paying them through their $500-a-month
(social assistance cheque)," Watts said.