NIABY.COM
(*Not In Anyone's Back Yard) "No one knows how much money spent by these organizations nor on what."-- Vancouver Sun describing over 100 organizations working in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, February 14th, 2008.
Throughout 2007, Vancouver's Addiction and Mental Health Experts accused NIABY.com of being biased by selecting only medical evidence and literature that shows poor results on large supportive housing for mentally ill drug addicts (or just drug addicts) with offsite community drug treatment.
In January 2008, NIABY.com challenged the "experts" to produce scientific evidence of effectiveness 1 and safety with the promise we would publish the results on this website.
After a less than overwhelming response from the "experts" we are left wondering - Where is all the overwhelming evidence that this large scale supportive housing for mentally ill drug addicts are effective and safe for the community?
Councillor Peter Ladner said, "Unsubscribe me."
We say – "Thank you Councillor Ladner but we weren’t really "subscribing" you to anything! Vancouver's voters were asking you a simple question – Where is the scientific evidence of effectiveness that communities will be safe when you build large scale apartments for mentally ill drug addicts in residential neighbourhoods throughout Vancouver?"
Councillor Raymond Louie said, "Thank you for your email, if possible I will have staff provide you with the information your have requested."
We say – "Thank you Councillor Louie for your prompt response and treating this important issue with consideration. Unfortunately, your City of Vancouver Staff have failed to send us any of the information requested." To date we have not received anything.
Here's Cameron Gray, Director of Housing, the City of Vancouver expert on supportive housing answering the question: "Extensive research was done regarding supportive housing as part of the development of the City's Supportive Hsg [Housing] Strategy that Council approved last June, and which is the context for the development of the 12 social and supportive housing sites. BC Housing, Vancouver Coastal Health and ourselves believe supportive housing to be a successful and proven response to the needs of persons with mental illness and addictions. The research is available on our website."
We say – "The extensive research available on the City of Vancouver's website 2 shows the best that mentally ill drug addicts can do are relapse rates greater than 70% at 6 months in supportive housing. Is this supposed to be encouraging? Are neighbourhoods supposed to feel safe with these results?"
The NIABY Challenge continues ... Where is the conclusive safety data that your community will not have increased risks to person and property? Governments are spending millions of tax payers' dollars on supportive housing for mentally ill drug addicts – show us evidence of effectiveness!
Read about the 2008 NIABY Challenge »
Published April 22, 2008.