Residents air concerns about living near proposed drug injection site

KITCHENER — It’s a volatile issue that had the moderator telling the crowded public meeting to be respectful of one another, listen to each other and no cheering or booing for either side.

The subject was supervised consumption sites and the hot-button issue has its supporters and its vocal critics.

John and Pat Davis live just behind the proposed site on Ahrens Street.

They plan to retire in two years and move to another out-of-town property. He’s worried about sinking property values and had planned to sell his home so the couple could live off the equity in their house.

“You run a path to make my house worthless,” he said.

“Nobody is going to buy a house with a dope house nearby,” he said. “Are you going to buy my house?”

More than 150 people gathered at the Kitchener Public Library Wednesday night for a meeting of the Olde Berlin Town Neighbourhood Association to talk about the proposed injection site planned for 115 Water St. N.

Others worried about more crime in the

area, the safety of their children and whether additional police would be hired.

Waterloo Regional Police Chief Bryan Larkin said additional officers were not hired in Ottawa or Toronto when those sites opened. There are four sites in Toronto, three in Ottawa, and 16 in total in Canada.

To a suggestion that there would be a “safe zone” around the site in which police would not arrest anyone is a myth, Larkin said, describing it as “fake news.”

A user on their way to the site will not be arrested, but anyone else in possession of drugs is committing a criminal offence, he said.

Dr. Chris Steingart, founder of Sanguen Health Centre, the organization that will be responsible for the site’s daily operations, thanked residents for their questions and said he was sympathetic to their worries.

But everything residents are worried about is already happening, he said. Streets are becoming public injection sites with no supervision.

“If we do this right, the people in the home next door are not at risk,” said Steingart, in response to a longtime resident’s concern about a home for disabled adults next door the proposed site.

Steingart, who works with addicts, said there will be “real pride in this service by the people who are using it. It’s a recognition that they matter and the community cares enough to provide them with this controversial service,” he said.

When asked by members of the audience why the site could not be placed at Grand River Hospital, Steingart said users would not come to the site because of their fear of public institutions and “the stigma of using illegal drugs.”

Larissa Ziesmann, a recovering heroin addict, said an injection site she used when she lived in Vancouver saved her life.

Ziesmann, who wore an “Insite” T-shirt, said the community should embrace the program, because it will relieve the burden on hospitals and paramedics.

The opioid crisis has hit Waterloo Region particularly hard. Last year, 85 people died of drug overdoses.

That is higher than last year’s provincial average which recorded 8.9 people dying for every 100,000 persons. Locally, the number is 15.5 deaths for every 100,000 people.

Public health manager Karen Quigley-Hobbs said being close to St. John’s Kitchen makes the Water Street location a preferred spot. But public health officials are open to other potential sites. They will consider sites until July 28, she said.

Although public health has always considered the possibility of a mobile site, at the meeting QuigleyHobbs said a mobile site was no longer an option.

Public consultation will be held in mid-August and public health officials will present their findings to regional council in November.

Other health care needs will be offered by the Kitchener Downtown Community Health Centre in Kitchener and Langs Community Health Centre in Cambridge. Treatment counselling will be offered by House of Friendship.

Public health is also suggesting a site for Cambridge. There are two potential locations in downtown Galt, but the city passed a bylaw banning potential sites from the core areas.

Simon Jefferies, spokesperson for Premier Doug Ford’s office, said in an email that Ford had made his personal feelings on injection sites clear during the election campaign. Ford said he was “dead against” them.

But, Jefferies said, the premier “will rely on advice from experts in the health care field when making these decisions.”