British Columbia’s Official Opposition is calling for widespread changes to supportive housing in the province following a CBC News investigation that revealed an 11-day delay in finding the body of a tenant.
Claire Rattée, the B.C. Conservative critic for mental health and addictions, said the story reveals the province’s current approach amounts to “warehousing addiction,” and reveals greater access to drug treatment and sober living facilities is urgently needed.
Diane Chandler was living in Surrey’s Foxglove supportive housing building, and died of an overdose in her room on April 20, 2024. In the days that followed, staff at the facility signed off on multiple wellness checks saying Chandler was alive.
Chandler’s body wasn’t found until May 1, 2024.
Critical incident reports sent to B.C. Housing — then obtained by CBC News through freedom of information — reveal that staff had mixed up another resident for Chandler. When they eventually discovered Chandler deceased in her room, they then found the other tenant dead of an overdose in their room, as well.
Chandler’s children, Tyler and Carley Gibbs, were never contacted by B.C. Housing. They eventually learned of the delay in finding their mother’s body through the cremation service that assisted in her funeral, and later through the coroner’s report into her death.
Speaking at the legislature, Tyler Gibbs said his mother was “failed” by the province, and that her addiction worsened after moving into her room at Foxglove.
“B.C. Housing never contacted me or my family, and I think that’s a disgrace. I want answers and I want change. My mum deserved better,” he said.
B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said in the legislature on Wednesday that in response to Chandler’s death, the province implemented changes that require wellness checks every 24 hours in every supportive housing facility across the province.
The province implemented changes to allow for more frequent wellness checks in January 2024, four months prior to Chandler’s death.
Rattée said the issue of accessing tenants’ rooms does not address the issue of people dying behind closed doors in provincially-funded housing.
“There’s a deeper issue here and I don’t think it’s around wellness checks,” she said. “It’s about encouraging open drug use in supportive housing facilities and warehousing addiction,” she said.
Not an isolated incident
CBC News later revealed a similar story from years earlier, and promises one mother said were broken.
Cyndie Richards’ son Shawn died at the Princess Rooms, a RainCity Housing facility in Vancouver, in 2017. His body was not found by staff for three days.
Richards said after Shawn’s death, a RainCity manager promised her that as a result of the mistake, wellness checks on tenants in the facility would be performed more frequently.
She told CBC News that Chandler’s death seven years later proves not enough has been done.
Rattée said the stories reveal the province must urgently expand treatment and mental services.
“We need to have supportive housing that is completely sober,” she said.
“If they want to have a mixed model, we need to make sure we encourage treatment in these facilities. We need to make sure people have an option between the two. We need to make sure those coming out of treatment aren’t being put wet facilities.”
