This is the wrong location

I spoke at the April meeting regarding Freedom’s Door. I fully support what this organization is doing to help men dealing with addiction. I agree we have a desperate need in our society.

I picked up a young girl at a pharmacy in Rutland yesterday and drove her to a government facility on Dilworth.  Her story was profoundly disturbing. She had all her worldly goods with her and was in desperate need of a roof over her head.  She had slept out in the rain that night after leaving a place where the others were shooting up.  She needed to get away.  They were taking all her stuff.  She had been clean a month and was desperate to stay clean.  Her right hand was red and swollen.  She had found a spot for the night under some stairs so she figured it was a spider bite. When she bent over you could see her torso was bandaged. She explained she had become addicted to drugs after being prescribed Oxycontin for pain after surgery.  The surgery had been botched and she had been dealing with several attempts to repair the damage, including removing her gall bladder.  I believed every word.  When we got to her destination we dragged all her belongings out of the car and stacked them against the wall.  The line up of twenty other lost souls was starting to move.  A security guard said he would keep an eye on her belongings while she went inside.  She gave me a big hug and thanked me for helping her as she turned and went inside.  She never asked me for a thing.

My problems seem very insignificant to hers. As a member of the neighbourhood where this development is proposed, I do not see that listening to the concerns expressed by the residents negates the need to help victims like her.  This isn’t an either or situation.

The opposition comes from a fear of having such a high density of men living on one property.  This is a residential area of one and two storey homes on single family lots.  The proposal for this development calls for a 4 storey commercial building filled with micro-suites. This is an efficient way of utilizing space. The Knights of Columbus donate the land in exchange for a new facility they do not have to maintain, and Freedom’s Door gets a valuable piece of land.  For the Knights of Columbus it is a good cause for them to support and they are filling a desperate need.

But this is the wrong location.

In order to build this, they are needing to ask for a 4 storey commercial building that, according to our bylaws, belongs in an urban centre like the south Pandosy area. Downtown Rutland is an example of an urban centre.  This will never become one unless all the relatively new homes are torn down to be replaced with other 4 storey buildings.  Even if the land was rezoned to accommodate this proposal, it would not comply with the zoning regulations.  The main floor has only 15% commercial, where it should be at least 90% according to city planning.  The main floor is 63% residential and no residential is allowed on this floor.  It has 51 micro-suites and the current bylaws only allow them in the downtown area and at the UBCO campus where high density tall buildings already exist.

But this is the wrong location.

There are no amenities for the tenants of this building. They have to take a bus to find a grocery store, pharmacy, health unit, library, doctor or dentist. The only place to relax outside is a paved parking lot. The YMCA is adjacent to two schools. There are no parks nearby. There is not enough private open space in the building plan for the number of units. 

Fresh Start is a facility in Calgary that is about the same size -50 beds. It is only two storeys and is on a parcel that is over an acre in size.  It looks like a townhouse development.  It is also situated in industrial area with not a home in sight.

This is the wrong location in Kelowna.  

What I heard at the meeting was, female after female saying please do not build it here. I beg of you. I bought a home here because it was an affordable family neighbourhood to raise my children.  This is destroying everyone’s sense of security and no one believes that this building will solve any issues here with drug users in the neighbourhood.  The relapse rate, is what it is, and no one can guarantee our safety unless they have a crystal ball. Two people on hand 24/7 to supervise 51 men seems a stretch.

This facility needs to be built, but not here.  The residents who have lived in this area all their lives, feel as though Rutland has reached saturation point.  I have spoken with the city and they do not have a total of exactly where all the supportive housing is located.  Surely that is something to be considered if the intention is to distribute them evenly among all the neighbourhoods.  

The only reason that this is an appropriate location for this development is that it is on a bus line.  There are one and two storey large lot [RU1] subdivisions all over Kelowna that are serviced by buses.  Even Crawford Estates has a bus line.  Should we be placing 50 unit, 4 storey towers for recovering addicts in any of them?  

With $9,000,000, Freedom’s Door can purchase 18 homes and accommodate far more individuals.  Surely we can find a better solution that will serve the needs of these men and the neighbourhood.  One does not have to be sacrificed for the other.  Nimbies are created when a neighbourhood is infringed upon.  We as humans do not like change, but we do adapt.  Change can be positive or negative and why should we adapt to negative if it is not necessary.

Susan MacLeod