Abbotsford's New recovery house policy
Councilor John Smith still has not answered the most important question concerning the recovery house policy.
In the more than a year since work began on Mr. Smith and council’s touted recovery house policy Mr. Smith and council have failed to answer: “when you close a ‘bad’ recovery house, where are the people/residents going to go”?
I support closing bad recovery houses, probably not for the same reasons as Mr. Smith, but I do support closing them. But, and isn’t there always a but with a people problem? But I felt, and still feel, that Mr. Smith and council need to have a plan in place so the people in those recovery homes that will be closed have a place to go – rather than mindlessly adding 100 – 200 more homeless to the overcrowded, overrun streets of Abbotsford.
Since it appears the Mr. Smith and council have followed their usual policy with taxpayer questions, they did not listen and ignored the question, I want to pose something to think about for the citizens of Abbotsford who will be affected by the new recovery home policy.
Before celebrating the closing of a recovery house in your neighbourhood – where are the people who live in the house going to go?
Recovery houses were a market response to the demand for affordable housing. When you close a recovery house there is nowhere else the residents can afford to move to.
You may not have liked a recovery house in your neighbourhood but are you prepared for the ex-residents seeking shelter in you carports, crawl spaces, sheds or trees around your/their neighbourhood? With nowhere else to go the people are going to stay in the neighbourhood they know – your/their neighbourhood. That is their comfort zone and where they will want to stay.
Perhaps any newly displaced residents of recovery houses can find rides to Mr. Smith and other councilors homes and neighbourhoods?
After all they have been aware of the question of where displaced residents of recovery homes will go for over a year and … done nothing to address this question/aspect of the new recovery homes policy.
Comments
I believe we need more
I believe we need more recovery homes in Abbotsford. I agree with Paul that we do not see the whole picture. I have heard of many excellent licensed and unlicensed recovery homes who help many people(I believe you know who you are).I have also heard many stories of women forced to engage in sex trade work in order to continue to secure their accomodation at unlicensed recovery houses (house). I belive with community guidelines and accountability this could eliminate this practice. By shutting down so many houses and putting a one year moritorium on any new houses, I will again ask the question that so many others have asked,where will people who are working to live free from alcohol and drug addictions go. I fear they will be forced back on to the street in the community where they will have to engage in sex trade work, stealing and other crimes to exist.I think this behavior is not only used to cope with the pain in peoples lives but also to cope with the reality of living on the street. We need to address homelessness, mental health, self esteem and addictions, which usually work in conjunction with each other.Limiting the help available will not make social problems disappear
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i have been a client in a
i have been a client in a christian based recovery home for more then a year and with all the home's in town that have had and do have bad reputations make it hard for the public as a hole to see that they do work!!as long as there is a program that institute's learning about addictions,and the ways to overcome them and alloows for growth.i'v been a christian for most of my life and we are all people with problems!!if you were to walk up to someone you know and ask if everything in their life was fine?what do you think would be their first response? we all face problems with life,we have to learn to live with and overcome these problems with the pain's of thing's that happened to us or some things that we have done or many different factore's that would lead us to use substance's from the pain and trama!!please don't judge all house's in our beautifull city as unhealthy!!the ministry that i'm staying in have been here for along time because they care and want us to learrn how to live!!
may god bless you all..
paul beaudry