B.C. minister wants to force homeless
into shelters
IAN BAILEY Globe and Mail December 31, 2008
VANCOUVER Housing Minister Rich Coleman says the Mental Health
Act needs to be changed so homeless people can be forced into shelters
for their own good.
“I just think it's important to take a hard look at it,” Mr. Coleman
said Wednesday in an interview.
He said he has discussed the idea with Premier Gordon Campbell, and
launched a review of the act to figure out how to make the plan work.
“There are provisions under the Mental Health Act for a committal and
that sort of thing. I think we need to have some stronger provisions
for this sort of situation.”
The idea appears to predate a recent tragedy in which a homeless woman
died in Vancouver after her makeshift shelter caught fire while she
tried to deal with the cold, but Mr. Coleman referenced that incident
in discussing the plan.
“I think when someone puts their life at risk, at that level, there are
probably issues with mental health and addictions in most cases and we
should have the power to be able to say, ‘We have a bed for you and
you're going to that bed,'” he said.
Asked who would enforce such an approach, he said the police and
mental-health workers, among others, would have to be rallied to the
cause. “The whole system has to integrate to make this successful,” he
suggested.
He conceded that the challenge is to figure out what would compel
people to remain in shelters after they were removed to them.
“I think, in most cases, if we had the ability to say, ‘You're going,'
a lot of them would,” he suggested.
Mr. Coleman said there is no timetable to advancing with the idea,
noting he could not commit to action by the time members return to the
legislature in February, or even before the provincial election in May.
“The work is ongoing,” he suggested. “It is a pretty big process.
“We do have to take into account the Charter and whether these things
would have a Charter challenge attached to them but, you know, I just
honestly believe some people are so ill on our streets that they can't
make decisions for themselves and they become a danger to themselves
and the public,” he said.
“We should have the opportunity to intervene because, if we can, we can
save them.”
Kerry Jang, a councillor with the majority Vision Vancouver party on
Vancouver city council, said Mr. Coleman's “heart is in the right
place,” but there may be a better way to work towards the same goal.
“Not all homeless people are mentally ill and so simply using the
Mental Health Act won't cover all the homeless people,” he said
Wednesday.
Instead, he said temperature should be used as a factor for taking
action.
When the temperature was sufficiently cold, it should be the basis for
apprehending people and putting them in shelters, he suggested.
“We're also cognizant of civil liberties, so forcing someone against
their will [into shelter] is problematic from a legal and mental-health
treatment perspective,” said Dr. Jang, also a psychiatry professor at
the University of British Columbia.
He said he looks forward to further discussing the idea with the
minister this year.