Winnipeg overdose prevention RV finds funds to continue providing drug users safety – for now

Manitoba's only mobile overdose prevention site, which has provided Winnipeggers with harm reduction supplies and free drug testing for just over a year, has secured enough money to continue operating through the winter after months of financial uncertainty.

Sunshine House's funding from Health Canada was set to end in October, leading the drop-in and resource centre that operates the overdose prevention RV to set a fundraising goal of $275,000 in order to keep it running to the end of March.

On Tuesday, Sunshine House said it had received more than $375,000 in funding for the unit, including $250,000 from the Winnipeg Foundation, about $72,728 from an amendment to its existing agreement with Health Canada, as well as about $55,000 in grassroots funding.

The site has supervised nearly 8,000 instances of drug use and conducted 391 drug tests since it opened, a Tuesday news release says. The new money will allow the mobile site, which has operated for five days a week with about four staff, to stay open in Winnipeg's core until the end of March.

"It also means that we can add a couple evenings to the schedule, which is really exciting," Davey Cole, co-ordinator of the mobile site program, told host Faith Fundal during a Tuesday interview with CBC Radio's Up to Speed.

"It gets darker in winter. We're battling so many more different elements and whatnot to stay connected and keep people safe."

LISTEN | Overdose prevention RV to roll through winter:

Up To Speed6:05Mobile overdose prevention site receives funding to continue providing harm reduction services

Host Faith Fundal speaks with the coordinator of Sunshine House’s mobile overdose prevention site about the service they provide to Winnipeggers who use drugs. They share why the site is an especially important service to provide Winnipeggers during the winter months.

Sunshine House's harm reduction RV received a federal exemption in Oct. 2022 under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to operate in Winnipeg's downtown, West End, North End and Point Douglas communities.

Approximately 28,000 visits have been made to the RV since then, and it is currently seeing about 200 visits daily, according to Cole.

The force driving the need for the site is the level of drug toxicity in Winnipeg, they say.

"It's quite concerning," Cole said. "Folks are buying what they think might be meth, but then it has opioids in it, and that can cause a really complex overdose situation."

Provincial data shows there were 358 confirmed deaths from overdoses in Manitoba in 2021, the most recent full year for which that data is available. There were another 42 suspected overdose deaths that year.

There were 63 confirmed fatalities due to an overdose and 15 suspected overdose deaths in the first three months of 2022, according to that data.

Manitoba's new NDP government confirmed in October that it wants to establish a supervised consumption site in downtown Winnipeg, tasking addictions minister Bernadette Smith to work with other cabinet ministers and deliver on what it called a key priority.

Jamil Mahmood, executive director of Winnipeg's Main Street Project, said in the Tuesday release that his organization is relieved Sunshine House's RV will continue to provide harm reduction services during an "ongoing drug toxicity crisis" in the city.

Sunshine House will continue to search for more grants and core funding to continue operating well into the future, Cole said. Staff at Sunshine House's RV also provide HIV rapid tests and referrals to other necessary services including housing and addictions treatment.

"We just believe that everybody deserves a chance to make it and be loved," Cole said, "and, ultimately, that's what we're just doing here is making sure that people don't die."