Surrey caps number of recovery homes at 55

Surrey has decided there can be no more than 55 recovery homes in the city.

There are currently 50 regulated recovery homes in Surrey and city staff says there are also about 20 unregulated sites.

Manager of bylaw enforcement Jas Rehal said most of the unlicensed facilities will have to be shut down, even though most of them have good reputations.

"A few years ago we had that number of 200 to 250 recovery homes in the city and we don't want to get back there again because we've done a lot of work," Rehal said.

"There is going to be room for some of those [unregulated] homes, the ones that are operating well, but the ones that can't we'll unfortunately have to shut down."

Rehal said Surrey has at least five times as many recovery houses as any other municipality in the region.

Mixed reaction

Susan Sanderson, who runs Realistic Success Recovery Society, applauds the city for shutting down shady, fly-by-night facilities.

However, she fears the cap will make it impossible for reputable operators like herself to open new houses that will help addicts get clean.

"You have to have rented your property before you can ask B.C. Housing and the fire department to come inspect it, so you have already made a financial commitment," she said.

"You may already have people lined up to go into it but all of a sudden you get told you can't do this because of the cap. Now what do you do? Those people have nowhere to go. This is really problematic."

Devin McGuire with Revolution Recovery said he went through a long, expensive process to get a licence for his facility but he believes that's a good thing.

"At the end of the day, I'm happy that it was as tough as it was," McGuire said.

"I think it's a good way to wean out the people that have no business being in this industry."

Red tape

Cole Iszak has waited eight months for an inspector to look at the facility he hopes to open in the north part of the city.

Iszak runs two licensed houses in Surrey and he is applying to open four more.

He has accepted clients while he waits for his application to be processed.

"We take people in off the street or from jail and we teach them how to live life without the use of illicit substances," he said.

He questions why the city is introducing a cap on recovery homes when people are overdosing every day.

"If my clients are displaced, they could die or go back to their addictions or go back to being homeless," he said.

"I borrow money from my family every couple of months so that I can keep going."

What's next?

Councillor Vera LeFranc said the city will not shut down facilities if they can't find housing for the tenants.

"We don't want to create more homelessness, so we are very thoughtful about which ones we close down," LeFranc said.

"We don't expect that it's going to happen overnight but our goal is to have 100 per cent of recovery houses under compliance."