Is Chinatown safer without a supervised consumption site? Neighbours say no

When Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced last August a plan to shut down 10 supervised drug consumption sites, she singled out the one in Ottawa's Chinatown for special attention.

Jones said violent crime was way up in the area around the Somerset West Community Health Centre, adding she didn't want Ontario's neighbourhoods to be "just a place for people to use drugs."

But in the two months since that supervised consumption site closed down, many neighbours say they now feel less safe as drug use has moved out of the facility and into the open.

Catherine Caldwell lives about two blocks away on Spruce Street. She said she didn't feel unsafe before the closure, but this spring feels worse than ever. Neighbours are finding more drug paraphernalia on their property, their backyards are getting trashed and they're facing harassment, according to Caldwell.

"It's starting to escalate and spiral and feel a bit more unsafe," she said.

Her neighbour Olivia Vietorisz isn't sure she can keep living on the street where she grew up. She feels like she can't leave her house without seeing public drug use. Last month, she found a crackpipe in her child's stroller.

"What would have happened if they had gone in there and picked it up?" she said. "That's scary to me, and it's to the point where we feel unsafe in our own home."

Closing our safe consumption site didn't make anybody here safer.- Catherine Boucher, Dalhousie Community Association

Leslie Robertson, who lives on Rochester Street, said they see more public drug use and more activity that looks like dealing.

"It's unfortunate because the safer consumption site was a place where people could go and consume drugs in a safer way," they said. "And now it's clear that people are doing it in other places."

Zach Melanson, who lives just around the corner from the centre, said he's noticed more drug use activity spilling out into the surrounding neighbourhood.

"While we don't feel more or less safe after the closure, it doesn't feel like it's making the difference that it's intended to make," he said.

Catherine Boucher, president of the area's Dalhousie Community Association, said the issues have spread beyond the immediate vicinity of the community health centre.

"Closing our safe consumption site didn't make anybody here safer," she said.

'A scary time'

CBC found a group of people congregating next to the community health centre last Wednesday, including several smoking from glass pipes. They said they, too, feel less safe. In their view, the closure has heightened the risk of overdose and prompted people to share equipment such as pipes and needles.

"Since Somerset West closed two months ago, I feel like I'm going to be found in my apartment when people start smelling me 'cause I've died in my apartment alone 'cause I no longer have the safety of Somerset West to use," said Angel McNeely.

"It's been a scary time for all of us."

The crowd was back on Thursday. Christopher Breton said he uses Dialaudid, morphine, cocaine, crystal meth, Ritalin, methylphenidate and fentanyl. Since the centre closed, he's been doing it outside on the street.

He said the supervised consumption site saved people on a daily basis. Now it's up to him and his naloxone kit.

"I've stopped 20 overdoses just the past two months since the centre's closed," he said. "If it weren't for the centre, I'd have been dead a long time ago. They've stopped me overdosing several times.

"It's a big worry that someone I know, or myself, might pass away from an overdose," he said.

'A perfect storm'

Somerset West Community Health Centre's harm reduction services were not limited to a supervised consumption site. The centre also offered a needle exchange, and physicians prescribed opioid medications to drug users as part of an approach known as safer supply.

The province forced the centre to close down all those services.

The reality is, drug users are going to use drugs. Getting rid of a space that's safe for them to do so isn't a solution.- Catherine Caldwell, nearby resident

"I think we're seeing more challenges than we had before because we lost our resource in the community," said Caldwell. "The reality is, drug users are going to use drugs. Getting rid of a space that's safe for them to do so isn't a solution. It just allows private enterprises to come in to fill those gaps."

That's precisely what happened when Northwood Recovery moved to Chinatown, setting up two blocks away from the community health centre within weeks of the closure.

It offers safer supply by prescribing Dilaudid to fentanyl users, but it doesn't offer a supervised injection site and lacks the extensive social supports available at the community health centre.

Many neighbours said those two factors — the closure of a public service and the arrival of a private one — are combining to make matters worse.

"With the weather warming up, a new clinic prescribing safe supply in the neighbourhood and the closure of the safe consumption treatment site, we've seen a surge of concerning activity in the neighbourhood," said Ryan Turley, a member of the Dalhousie Community Association who spoke in his capacity as a neighbour living around the corner from the centre. 

"If the objective of the closure of the safe consumption site was to make the neighbourhood safer, I don't think it's had that intended effect."

Boucher called it a "perfect storm" for the community.

"They're not a publicly funded health support like Somerset West is," she said of Northwood. "It's not their job to ensure that people have affordable housing or have treatment for whatever other physical ailments they may have, or mental health issues."

Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster used exactly the same language.

"We are in the midst of a perfect storm in Chinatown," she said.

The arrival of the Northwood clinic means people can still access opioids through safer supply, Troster noted, but without a safe place to use them.

"We're seeing a high degree of drug diversion," she said. "We're finding needles, pill bottles, all sorts of things spread out through the neighborhood and people using drugs on public and private property. It's a neighborhood that's already had a lot of challenges in this regard, and it's really just made things worse."

Dr. Suman Koka, the physician who runs Northwood Recovery, declined to comment for this story. Ottawa Police Service also declined an interview request.

Paramedics fear closure will add to risks

The province said its new approach, known as homelessness and addiction recovery treatment (HART) hubs, will prioritize community safety. It offered the shuttered supervised consumption sites a chance to transition to HART hubs, and Somerset West accepted the deal.

Suzanne Obiorah, the centre's CEO, said they've already launched a first phase of HART hub services including meals, recreation, introduction to treatment options and referrals. There's also access to a nursing team.

She said a second phase of services will begin this summer. At that point, the HART hub will offer eight different mental health and substance abuse treatment options. Eventually, it will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Obiorah said the HART hub shows a lot of promise, but it can't fully replace what was lost when the consumption site closed.

"We need a continuum of services and supports to address this toxic drug crisis," she said. "So removing one of those critical supports in that continuum or in that spectrum creates great risk and gaps in our community."

She said there isn't yet sufficient data to assess the impact of the closure, but she's not surprised that neighbours are noticing more public drug use. While there are other supervised consumption sites in Lowertown and Sandy Hill, Obiorah doubts many of those who relied on her centre west of Ottawa's downtown are willing to travel that far to use.

"We have removed an option for people to use safely under supervision indoors," she said.

The Ottawa Paramedic Service hasn't waited to step up its presence in the neighbourhood, adding an advanced care paramedic to the area in January in anticipation of the closure.

Paramedic James Taylor is working that beat. He responds to high-acuity calls, patrols the streets and checks in on the homeless population to see if he can help.

He said he responds to between four and eight overdoses per shift. So far, none have proven fatal. He has also noticed the uptick in public drug use, but said it's hard to pull apart the role of seasonal variations, the closure of the site and other factors. Like Obiorah, paramedics are waiting for more hard data.

But Taylor is worried the loss of the supervised consumption site will add to the risks.

"It is one of my fears," he said. "Now that we have less medical staff overall watching over these people, we're going to have to rely on the public bystander to walk by that sidewalk to see that person overdosing, whereas before they were in a safe, supervised consumption site."

Mixed feelings

The provincial health ministry defended the decision to close the supervised consumption sites, saying they were dangerously close to day cares or schools. Ema Popovic, a spokesperson for Jones, said the move responded to "serious safety concerns" raised by parents and communities.

She said the the $550 million investment in HART hubs will help people break the cycle of addiction while ensuring the safety of communities.

Some residents agree. Support for the supervised consumption site is not universal in Chinatown.

Nick Sydor lives on Spruce Street and agrees that this spring seems worse than ever, but he sees it as one more step in a steady decay in public order initially fuelled by the supervised consumption site at the community health centre.

"I think that the safe injection site was a significant contributor to the deterioration of order in the neighborhood," he said. "I think that since the safe injection site opened, it became a magnet for drug use and for drug selling."

In his view, the new private clinic has only added to the issues. He said the provincial government should create a buffer zone around the new HART hub, restricting safer supply of any kind to give patients there a chance to get off drugs.

But Troster wants to see more services in her community, not fewer.

"I would like the province to allow a supervised consumption site to operate in Chinatown," she said. "The gap has led to an absolute disaster."