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Rogue recovery houses prey on the addicted in Surrey – and fingers are being pointed straight at the province
Nobody knows for sure just how many drug and alcohol recovery houses are operating in Surrey. Some estimates run as high as 200, but Surrey's mayor thinks the actual number is smaller. "From what I understand, there are about 130 here in our city," Mayor Dianne Watts told the Now. However many there are, the vast majority of the recovery houses in Surrey - about 90 per cent of them - are not subject to provincial regulation and inspection and that's a problem. It's a problem for the city, for police, but most of all, it's a problem for their residents, addicts trying to get clean and sober.
The situation dates from December 2001 when the government of former premier Gordon Campbell changed the rules governing recovery houses. The Liberals amended the Community Care Facility Act to create a new class of facility called supportive recovery residences that are not required to have a provincial licence to operate.
In order to qualify as a supportive recovery residence, operators are required to provide "a safe and drug-free environment" for recovering addicts, but cannot "provide most or all of the services" required of licenced houses. The changes essentially created a class of boarding house for those addicted to alcohol and drugs.
In many cases, what it created was a network of flophouses where people trying to overcome addiction are exploited by unscrupulous operators who take clients' welfare cheques, but deliver little in the way of support or supervision.
There's good money in recovery houses; 10 clients will gross the operator nearly $6,000 a month and those who exploit their clients by providing substandard accommodation and meals can realize a tidy profit.
Gary Robinson is a former Surrey city councillor, a recovery house operator and a recovering cocaine addict. He is the executive director of Realistic Success Recovery Society, which has three recovery houses in Surrey.
Robinson does it right. His houses provide clean, well-maintained residences where clients receive nutritious meals, counselling and caring support from staff and fellow residents.
Robinson has nothing but contempt and anger for operators who exploit people trying to regain control of their lives.
"I call them predators. They're preying on people at their lowest, at the lowest point in their lives."
'NO POINT' IN BEING THERE
Corey is a 22-year-old recovering crack addict who lives in one of Robinson's recovery houses. He's been wrestling with substance abuse of one kind or another since he was seven. He spent four weeks in a recovery house run by an organization that has at least five houses in Surrey.
"They got $560 a month from me and it was pretty much just a meal a day and a bed to sleep in. I wasn't put on any restrictions and I was allowed to keep my phone," Corey said.
He said within the first week of his residence there, he and the house monitor - the person in charge of the place - were on their way to a recovery meeting.
"While we were out, the monitor bought some crack. Both of us were using crack. After a while, I figured there wasn't much point being there."
Corey eventually found a place in one of Robinson's houses and 46 days in, he said the difference was like night and day.
"Here, they treat you with respect. All the guys and all the managers here show you respect, they don't look down on you."
PROVINCE BLAMED FOR PROFITEERING
Rogue recovery houses are bad news for neighbourhoods, too.
Steve Burke and Charlie Morton both live in Whalley and both have bad recovery houses in their area. They want the rules changed to outlaw the kind of exploitation they see every day. Both blame the provincial government for allowing unlicenced - and virtually uncontrolled - recovery houses to exist.
They say the province is responsible for the situation and they want Victoria to step up and put it right.
Burke and Morton said the majority of recovery houses have more residents than the rules allow, are poorly managed, and are nothing more than money-making enterprises that take advantage of people who have fallen on bad times.
The anger is evident in Morton's voice as he talks.
"We have more compassion for a dying seal on a beach than we have for human beings in our city. It's not right. I think the province is misappropriating our tax money, supposedly to help these people, and they're not doing anything."
Burke agreed. He said profit is the prime motive for most recovery house operators.
"You can't make a profit with just six people in that house. You've got to have more people there - a lot more."
CITY'S HANDS TIED: WATTS
Watts said city hall is working on a plan of action, but said the city's options are limited. City hall can only regulate zoning and land use; it has no direct control over the recovery process itself.
"This has been a problem ever since I've been on council. The province won't regulate them," the mayor said.
Watts said she's not eager to shut down recovery houses that violate city bylaws.
"But we've got to move in that direction. We're going to start shutting some of them down, but we have to have a plan to house these people. Otherwise we'll just have a lot more addicts on the street."
Calls to minister Rich Coleman were not returned.
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