Supporters seek to salvage addiction, homelessness program despite prospect of losing farm
Founder defends facility against critics who say it didn't live up to its billing
As foreclosure looms at a recovery farm for people with addictions and no place to live, supporters held a community meeting Tuesday to discuss ways to save or replace it.
Last month the society that operates Woodwynn Farms told the farm to shut down after the philanthropists who hold a $5.3-million mortgage on the property withdrew their support.
Meeting organizer Rob Reid, a former chair of the Woodwynn board of directors, said it's understandable the original funders of the project would want their investment returned after the last hopes faded to house up to 96 residents in recovery there.
"We still have to fight on," Reid told On the Island host Gregor Craigie. He said he's written several B.C. government ministries and received positive comments about the program from B.C. Housing.
"I really think [departments of] mental health and addictions, B.C. Housing and agriculture need to all sit down and say 'Wow, a therapeutic farm ... why not?' " Reid said.
The historic 193-acre Woodwynn Farms property began operating as a therapeutic community in 2009 after founder Richard LeBlanc gained widespread public support and private financing for his vision of a program modelled on the San Patrignano community in Italy.
But Woodwynn's neighbours protested the plan and Central Saanich council rejected repeated efforts for rezoning to allow more housing on the property.
The final defeat came Nov. 9, 2017, with a decision by the province's Agricultural Land Commission rejecting an application for non-farm use by the Creating Homefulness Society.
Assessments of the Woodwynn program's methods and effectiveness varied among several former participants and one volunteer at the farm.
'I wouldn't have made it without that place'
Marina Berthiaume, who lived there from October 2016 to March 2017, said the experience saved her life at a time when she was suicidal, homeless, using drugs heavily and unable to get treatment for a diagnosed psychological disorder.
"Woodwynn pretty much stabilized me on my medications and stuff. The addiction kind of just went away. Woodwynn gave me the opportunity to have my needs met," Berthiaume said.
"Every day I say my gratitude because I wouldn't have made it without that place."
Meanwhile, former participant Jacob Heeb said he concluded the farm program lacked a therapeutic component.
"There was no recovery. It was basically a labour farm which, in and of itself, is fine. I have nothing wrong with hard work," Heeb said. "But there was no recovery."
Meanwhile, former Woodwynn volunteer Nathan Gregg said because there were so few residents on the farm, people ended up working long hours alone.
"There is no interaction or community-method style of therapy. So people who had a history of isolating themselves in depression were able to just continue to do that and problems got worse and worse and worse," Gregg said.
Woodwynn executive director Richard LeBlanc said critics who say the program lacks a therapeutic component are mistaken, but its community method differs from traditional 12-step treatment.
"We actually meet a lot, but for us a meeting is around the dinner table seven days a week, where we discuss issues, that's a meeting."
However, LeBlanc said, the problem of people working in isolation is a valid concern.
"That's an unfortunate reality," he said. "There's so much to do and not ... a large enough group."
With files from CBC Radio One's On the Island with Gregor Craigie.