Neighbours say this home at 5 Bayview Cres. is slated to become a supportive recovery home. But Michelle Jansen, of BJMRC, phoned the Osoyoos Times about 20 minutes after a reporter knocked on the door to accuse him of “stalking” and saying the information is “incorrect.” The town says no application has been made. (Richard McGuire photo)

Residents of the Goodman Park area on the east side of Osoyoos are upset that a Coquitlam-based company is trying to, in their belief, “sneak” a recovery home for drug addicts into their neighbourhood.

Local residents say the Brandon Jansen Memorial Recovery Centre (BJMRC) is leasing a home at 5 Bayview Cres. across the street from Goodman Park to house up to six recovering addicts.

The Osoyoos Times made repeated attempts to contact BJMRC over a period of several weeks, but phone messages were ignored.

On Monday, a reporter visited the address, identified himself and asked a woman there how to contact the people taking over the lease or reach the landlord.

About 20 minutes later, Michelle Jansen, president and chief executive officer of BJMRC, phoned the Osoyoos Times, angry that a reporter had gone to the home.

“Do not go stalking around the neighbourhood,” Jansen said. “I just think that’s very unprofessional and I don’t appreciate it. We’re doing some real work here and we don’t need news reporters… of any kind stalking us. We’ll get back to you in a timely fashion as our time allows.”

Jansen said the reason for keeping the location confidential is so that drug dealers don’t know the address.

“So you going around searching the neighbourhood and trying to verify some random facts which are incorrect, mind you, infuriates me,” Jansen said. “What are you doing? That is not responsible reporting.”

Before the property can be zoned as a recovery centre, a public hearing is required at which the address is made public.

Residents, however, say the real reason Jansen is being secretive is that efforts to establish a 12-bed recovery centre in Penticton were thwarted when a group of neighbours prevented her from acquiring a $1.4 million property by buying it first.

“She’s trying to sneak it into Osoyoos and Vernon because of the problem they had in Penticton,” said Lyle Warmington, who lives next door to the Bayview Cres. home. “It would have helped an awful lot if they’d been transparent. If they were straight up and came out and said to people this is what we’re trying to do, can we get your approval, they would be a lot happier.”

BJMRC promotes itself as providing guidance, support and care for people affected by addiction with recovery programs.

“The programming is based on healthy thinking with nutrition and healthy living with the mind, body and soul at the centre of our program,” BJMRC says on its website.

The fee schedule on BJMRC’s website says it charges a private fee for its addictions program of $18,500 per month.

An alumni program for people who have completed the addictions program is $9,250 for 30 days.

The centre is named after Jansen’s son Brandon, who died of a fentanyl overdose in March 2016 while attending a treatment centre.

Jansen is also the owner of Jansen Claims Group Inc., which handles disability, occupational and non-occupational insurance claims.

She was subsequently able to obtain another property in Penticton for a facility that opened earlier this month.

“We’re trying to open a network of recovery centres,” Jansen said in her call to the Osoyoos Times. “We are trying to put all the pins in place for our different centres throughout the Okanagan at this point… Osoyoos is a very minor part of what we’re looking at.”

The home on Bayview Cres. at the intersection with Lakeshore Drive is described by BC Assessment as having four bedrooms and two bathrooms, and is assessed at $581,000.

Most of the front yard is taken up by parking spaces. The lot size is only 0.183 acres.

“The place has virtually no front yard to it,” said Warmington, suggesting residents will have nothing to do and will sit in front or go to the park across the street where children are playing.

Warmington insists that he’s not a NIMBY person (not in my back yard). He and his wife Margaret lost a son to suicide from addiction and mental illness and their daughter was also addicted but succeeded in becoming drug free by attending a rehab/recovery facility in Nanaimo.

Their objection is that the location is unsuitable.

Another neighbour, Jackie Pawluk, agrees that the Warmingtons are not NIMBY.

“If it was me, I would be a not-in-my-backyard-person,” she said, noting the proximity of the Warmingtons to the home.

“We’re very close to them and we knew their son,” she said. “This for me is like pouring salt in a wound. It’s horrible for them. It’s also for all of us… This whole area is completely up in arms about it.”

Pawluk said she has been in contact with a man who has opened recovery homes elsewhere and is himself a recovered addict, but she doesn’t wish to identify him.

“He says the worst place you could put them is right in a neighbourhood like that, sharing a driveway with other people right next door,” she said.

This person tried to establish a recovery home in one community, but got strong resistance from neighbours. He recognized that this atmosphere would not be good for the neighbours or the people in recovery.

“He said you don’t want them walking out the door and having people point fingers every time they see them either,” she said.

Pawluk also says Jansen is trying to “sneak this in.”

“She was going to have a done deal before the location was disclosed,” she said.

At the March 19 town council meeting, council gave the first two readings for a bylaw amendment that would add to the town’s zoning bylaw a definition for a supportive recovery facility and set out general criteria.

A public hearing on this bylaw is scheduled for April 16.

Gina MacKay, director of planning and development services, emphasizes that this bylaw amendment and hearing are only to include a new definition in the zoning bylaw. Any applications for a business license or to rezone a particular property would be done at separate later hearings, she said.

The new definition would define supportive recovery as “a facility providing a supportive and structured environment for individuals recovering from drug and alcohol addition, before they are ready to move into independent housing.”

In her report to council, MacKay said the town’s previous approach has been to suggest that a recovery facility could be located on a property zoned for a community care facility.

“However, the province has specifically stated that this type of use is not an appropriate fit with community care facility,” she said.

Any rezoning to allow a supportive recovery facility, she said in an interview, would be property specific and would require its own public hearing separate from the currently proposed bylaw amendment.

MacKay said the town has received several inquiries about such a facility in the last couple of years, but she couldn’t say who inquired. She did confirm, however, that there has been no application beyond a general inquiry.

“There’s no actual application or proposal for any specific property in our community,” MacKay said, adding that the biggest misconception is that the current bylaw amendment relates to a specific property.

Asked what she would say to people who think this type of facility doesn’t belong in a residential area, MacKay responded: “That’s not my decision to make. That’s council’s. What I can tell you is that they have been operating successfully in other communities around the province in a residential zone.”

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times