If you’ve been following the news over the past few months, you’ll know that the former Harris House on Franklyn Street, right behind City Hall, has been the object of lots of attention since it was announced that it would house a health centre, including a needle exchange to be moved from Cavan Street. There was an intense blast of short-lived outrage, much due to the fact that the local residents and businesses were not notified in advance. It reminded me of the Balmoral situation that we encountered last year. But something seemed different here, so I put on my Sherlock Holmes cap and picked up the telephone. Here’s what I found out.
Let’s begin by defining the types of social services provided. There are basically 2 categories.
1. High Impact social services tend to provide a broad spectrum of services to a large group of people.
Think the Salvation Army’s New Hope Centre. High traffic, lots of people congregating. The Living Room falls into this category. There are a limited range of commercial areas zoned for this kind of building/service. In technical zoning language these are referred to as “Social Service Resource Centres.”
2. Low impact (benign) social services provide specialized services that support people in smaller numbers. So those offices tend to carry small case loads.
Traditionally, both types of services ended up in the downtown core or
the South End, due to zoning. But last year, the zoning regulations
were changed, and now low impact services can be offered, basically, from a variety of commercial buildings, essentially anywhere professional office use is permitted. “Haliburton is no longer the street of choice for these options, it’s fair enough that services be shared around Nanaimo,” John Horn, our Manager of Social Planning told me.
So then, what’s the difference between the services/clientele planned for the Harris House Health Centre and the Balmoral?
Services to be offered by Harris House are more immediate in nature: for example, wound treatment for abscess street feet (which is a big problem), counselling to sobriety, healthy living, and yes 10% of the service offerings include needle exchange. The centre will try to act as a guide to network to other services. The location, close to downtown, is a fit for the client base.
VIHA’s initial plan for the Balmoral was for a Living Room project – a high impact service. Due to public input, the services offered will now fall into the low impact category. Services to be offered through the Balmoral will tend to be longer-term in nature: treatment of Hepatitis C or sexually transmitted diseases, problems with more medical grounds, the goal being to live a better life. Many clients will not necessarily be homeless or transient.
The Harris House initiative is perhaps the first step in the city’s move to spread social services outside the downtown core and the South End. It’s noteworthy move on the city’s part and very good news for we residents of the South End.
Barbara Densmore