Leslieville drug consumption site closes doors for good in response to Ontario law

A supervised drug consumption site in Toronto's east end closed its doors for good on Friday less than two years after a shooting near the site killed a mother of two.

The keepSix Consumption and Treatment Service, located inside the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC), 955 Queen St. E., closed ahead of the March 31 deadline to shut down as directed by the Ontario government. 

Sixteen staff members have been laid off and the site closed earlier than required due to limited availability of staff, according to the centre.

"While this marks the end of an important service, we remain dedicated to providing compassionate care, equitable harm reduction services and advocating for the wellbeing of our clients," the centre said on Friday in a post on X. 

Karolina Huebner-Makurat, 44, died in hospital on July 7, 2023 after she was hit by a stray bullet near the site in the area of Queen Street E. near Carlaw Avenue in Leslieville. 

The fatal shooting prompted a community outcry and provincial reviews of the sites, which were followed by legislation that bans any supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of a school or daycare.

KeepSix is among the 10 safe consumption sites that were slated to close by the end of the month because of the legislation. It's one of nine sites that will transition into what the province calls Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs.

As a result of the closure, the centre says it will not offer supervised drug consumption, needle exchange programs and safer supply of drugs. But on its website, the centre says it will continue to offer sterile harm reduction supplies. Daily sweeps for drug litter in the area and overdose response training will continue, the centre says. 

The room inside the centre dedicated to the site will be used as a meeting area.

Shannon Wiens, CEO of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, said in a news release on Wednesday that staff were preparing for the closure by providing overdose response training and referrals.

"Over the past eight years, we have had many ups and downs but, through it all, we have reached thousands of people and saved hundreds of lives," Wiens said.

"Our compassionate staff, including community health workers, social workers, nurses and physicians, have made countless referrals to health and other services, such as housing support and mental health treatments, and provided team-based primary care, counselling, vaccinations, foot care, wound care and more," Wiens added.

"Grief and loss are not feelings that are unusual for our staff, clients and family members who use, work in or support our services and many are feeling the loss at the impending closure of keepSix. We are leaning on each other and remembering our work is never done — we will just need to do it differently in the coming year."

The centre is now co-lead of the East Toronto HART Hub, which is slated to open in April, that will provide healthcare, day programs, social services and housing support. The centre said clients will have access to primary care, mental health and substance use supports with referral to other services.

Fourteen organizations in all will operate the East Toronto HART Hub, which means it will be located at different sites.

Health ministry says sites closing for safety reasons

Hannah Jensen, spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said in an email Friday that the provincial government passed legislation requiring nine sites in Ontario to close for public safety reasons because they "are located dangerously close to schools and daycare centres."

The government did not require the sites to close earlier than its March 31 deadline, she added.

Jensen said the HART hub locations will open on April 1 to ensure no service gap. 

The closure comes as a coalition of groups prepares to argue in court next week that the legislation forcing the sites to close violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The case is to be heard at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto.

Supervised consumption sites save lives, activist says

At a media briefing on the court challenge Thursday, Zoe Dodd, co-organizer of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, said supervised consumption sites save lives and the legislation passed by the province to close them will lead to more overdose deaths. 

"And the government knows this," Dodd said.

In a post on X on Friday, Dodd said she'd worked at the keepSix site for 15 years.

"The closure of this site is the loss of a life line," she wrote. "These last weeks many people have died including a coworker who we bury on Thursday. Life is struggle for the majority."