‘People think it’s a good idea, but they don’t want it by their house’
Businesses and residents worried about impact of permanent injection site
LONDON — Auto sales owner Dennis Krogman doesn’t mince words when it comes to having a supervised injection site opening next door.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s horrible,” said the 73-year-old business owner who’s been located on York Street in London for 45 years.
Krogman already has problems, and he expects more once the site is near his business.
He’s had people living in his cars in the back lot and he ended up giving a car away for parts because he couldn’t get rid of the smell of urine in it.
He spent $1,000 to cut large branches off the birch trees in the backyard and put up barbed wire on top of the six-foot fence to deter people from living in the cars.
Krogman says a supervised injection site will make a troubled neighbourhood close to downtown even worse.
“I don’t believe it’s going to help people,” he said. “They need rehabilitation and no one is talking about that.”
“People think it’s a good idea, but they don’t want it by their house,” he said.
Paul Pritiko, co-owner of an auto body shop on York Street, says he isn’t opposed to a supervised injection site.
“I understand the need but not the location,” said Pritiko, who watches teens walk by this window each day to a nearby high school.
“That’s my biggest beef.”
Pritiko said the area has faced challenges. The Men’s Mission shelter is up the street, across from Krogman’s auto sales business and underneath the nearby Adelaide Street bridge homeless people live in cardboard tents.
Pritiko said the area is on the cusp of revitalization with the current owner of the former London Free Press building turning it into a business innovation hub.
Pritiko said he’s also concerned with the harm-reduction philosophy, which allows users to bring their own drugs to use safely in a supervised location.
“I am opposed to the fact that my tax dollars give you a place to do it (drugs) safely,” he said.
“I oppose the message, but I understand the need. It saves lives,” he said.
Pritiko would rather see an injection site located in a hospital or clinic where treatment services can be offered to those coping with an addiction.
Mike Lund lives on the 10th floor of an apartment building on Simcoe Street. A supervised injection site is slated for his building.
“I think it would bring more crime, more violence to this area.”
Lund said the public housing building, which has a needle drop-off box outside, has its share of issues with plenty of drug activity and police visits each week.
But others say an injection site might improve a building badly in need of repairs and put an end to people injecting in their stairwells and needles discarded outside.
London’s medical officer of health Chris Mackie said some citizens criticize the current proposed location on Simcoe Street because it already has drug activity there.
“We should put this in your house Mr. Mackie. Well, one of the sites we are proposing is just a few blocks from my house,” he said.
“I’m personally happy to have it. It’s coming near my home and it’s needed,” he said.