Maple Ridge residents pack meeting about recovery home

Dozens of residents packed a meeting last night in Maple Ridge to voice their frustrations about a council proposal to regulate and manage recovery and transition houses in the city.

With tension running high between some residents, the homeless and city council, the gallery was overflowing at the meeting Tuesday night.

The council is considering a bylaw amendment that would help regulate existing recovery homes, allowing them to operate in residential areas as long as there are under 10 people inside each home.

Resident Kathy Pring told the council she's concerned the proposed rules could encourage homeless people from other cities to come to Maple Ridge.

"We are being saturated. That old saying feed them and they will come — that's exactly what we're doing," said Pring after the meeting.

But Mayor Nicole Read said the meeting provided a chance for councillors to explain the proposed amendment is actually aimed at controlling unregulated recovery homes already operating in the city.

Recovery homes needed

"We need these recovery homes in our city. We have to have treatment providers that do good work," said Read. "We are not trying to run recovery homes out of town."

"But the reality is not all of them are created equal, and certainly we do see people who end up on the streets as a result of coming into these recovery homes."

The mayor said city staff still have a lot of work to do to determine the number of unregulated recovery homes already operating in the city.

Council is expected to hear the third reading of that bylaw amendment June 27.

Meanwhile, Pring and others called for supportive housing facilities for the homeless instead.

But after the meeting Mayor Read pointed out the city's only temporary shelter closed in May because of local opposition, leaving some homeless people with no place to go, but tents.

A proposal to create a permanent facility at an older motel was also rejected following local opposition and ultimately failed to receive the necessary provincial funding.

"This $15 million commitment is still floating. We need that housing," said Read.

The mayor has long been the target of residents angry over plans to try and build a homeless shelter in Maple Ridge and has faced threats to her safety, which were investigated by the RCMP.