These are the 2 locations London's health unit wants for drug consumption sites
One is a public housing building with drug problems, the other is across from Mission Services
The Middlesex-London Health Unit has proposed two locations it intends to develop into permanent supervised drug consumption sites: one is a public housing building on Simcoe Street, the other a retail space across from Mission Services on York Street.
The health unit also plans to pursue adding a mobile supervised consumption site that will make regular stops in the neighbourhoods of Old East Village, downtown, and SoHo.
"This is really about making sure we are scaling up our efforts to match the level of need that we're seeing in the community," MLHU chief medical officers Dr. Chris Mackie told CBC's Afternoon Drive on Friday.
"We had two landlords coming forward, each on either side of the downtown area where a lot of the drug activity is happening and we thought it would be a good balance to have them both as part of the picture," said Mackie. " We've always said one site won't meet the demand here."
241 Simcoe Street
Located on Simcoe just west of Wellington Street behind the Goodwill donation centre, 241 Simcoe St. is a 12-storey apartment building operated by the London and Middlesex Housing Corporation.
John Carriere has lived in the building for three years. He says it houses about 200 residents, who already deal with frequent drug activity in and around the building.
"There's already problems here that need to be cleaned up," he said. Carriere said people regularly sleep in the building's stairwells and cause trouble for residents. He fears it will become worse if MLHU follows through on plans to develop a consumption site on the building's ground floor.
Mackie concedes the building has drug problems and about 400 annual police visits but said adding a supervised consumption site will improve conditions.
"It's a building with a lot of issues," said Mackie. "Getting some of the drug consumption out of the stairwells ... getting it to a supervised environment that will keep people safe and alive even if they overdose. This will be really positive both for tenants and neighbours."
He says the housing corporation wants to partner with the health unit to improve conditions in the building.
446 York St.
Currently the home of Bellone Music store, this site is located directly across York Street from Mission Services of London.
Mackie said the store's large frontage and square footprint makes it an attractive site.
"It's really flexible in terms of what we can do in the interior," he said. "It's going to be really flexible in terms of getting other agencies partnering in the facilities. We know that the demand and the need is right there."
The store sells musical instruments.
Staff at Bellone told CBC news on Friday the store would relocate, but not close, if the location is approved for a consumption site.
As for a mobile unit, the plan is to have a vehicle make regular stops in neighbourhoods like Old East village, downtown, and SoHo.
The move to develop two sites is a sharp change in direction for MLHU. Less than two weeks ago the health unit was looking to create one site at one of two locations:
- 372 York St., across from the London Free Press building.
- 120 York St., at the corner of Talbot Street and across from the Greyhound bus station
The landowner of 372 York St. walked away from lease negotiations last week and 120 York St. has faced early opposition from some downtown businesses.
Neighbourhood meetings
The neighbourhood meeting for 241 Simcoe St. will be held at the Middlesex County Building, located at 399 Ridout St. N. on Thursday April 26 at 4 p.m.
The meeting for those living and working in the vicinity of 446 York Street will meet in the same location starting at 6:30 p.m.
Any permanent site must be approved by Health Canada and the provincial government. Mackie said the two sites announced Friday have been submitted for approval.
He said the health unit will gather more input from neighbours and the city's planning committee.
Mackie said he expects a mix of opposition and support for the proposed sites.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
