Salvation Army's residential addiction program to be axed

Tim Callaway
CW Alberta Correspondent
alberta@christianweek.org

CALGARY, AB-A $3 million shortfall over the past two years has the Salvation Army’s local Centre of Hope facing the closure of its residential addiction treatment program. Unless funds are raised immediately, the "one-stop" community service centre will close its 44-bed treatment program by the end of May.

The funding crisis also means that more than 25 per cent of the Salvation Army’s community workers will be laid off. The Centre’s 310 emergency and transitional beds will remain open, however.

"We’ve never operated so many different programs out of a single facility," says spokesman Brian Venables, "and we didn’t calculate the costs accurately. My prayer is that we get the funding from somewhere, because otherwise, 44 guys are going to be out on the street."

"It’s time for people to get down on their knees and start praying," client services worker, John Brenn, told the Calgary Herald. A former addict, Brenn says he spent 30 years travelling the country, spending eight years in jail while alienated from his family and earning two failed marriages.

"Today, I’m working for the Salvation Army and have a beautiful little apartment-something I’ve never had before and I’m 45 years old," he notes. "To say that this program saved my life is an understatement.

"The reality of the situation is, it costs almost a million dollars a year to run this floor," Brenn adds. "So our big prayer is that the money will be found somewhere."

The Centre of Hope provides more than half of Calgary’s residential addiction treatment beds while the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission fund the other 40 available beds.

Another victim of the shortage of funds will be the Army’s Community Connections employment program that presently helps about 250 drop-in clients per day with job searches and resumés. Cutbacks will mean that three counsellors, available by appointment only, will serve less than 100 clients daily.

The Salvation Army in Calgary has never received provincial funding, but the impending crisis has prompted the board of governance to initiate discussions with the provincial minister of health and the minister of seniors.