Surrey outreach team launched to tackle public health issues

Surrey will soon have a designated outreach team to deal with “public safety, public health and quality of life issues” in the city centre area.

The Surrey Outreach Team was announced on Tuesday as part of the City Centre Response Plan, which focuses on homelessness, addiction and mental-health concerns on and around 135A Street between 106th and 108th avenues, also known as The Strip. It’s an area that has seen a significant increase in the number of police, fire, ambulance and bylaw calls this year.

The plan is a three-year pilot program and a partnership between Surrey RCMP and the city.

The outreach team will consist of 12 police officers and four bylaw officers who will work out of a satellite office (opening in early 2017 at 10681 135A St.) in partnership with health and community services to provide a co-ordinated response to those in need 24 hours a day.

During the announcement, the city said that it is adding 40 low-barrier winter shelter beds in a building in Guildford with transition support to move people into permanent housing. The shelter was approved by council in October despite concerns about its location.

The city has also added 40 extreme-weather shelter mats — which are available from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on nights when extreme weather is declared, such as Monday — to the 55 that already existed in the city centre. The extreme-weather spaces will be located at 10660 City Parkway, in the same building as the Royal Canadian Theatre Company and Streetrich Hip Hop Society, but access will be through the existing Gateway Shelter. They will be operated by the Lookout Emergency Aid Society.

The plan also calls for the creation of a City Centre Public Safety Advisory Committee made up of experts, community members and city staff that will draft a long-term plan for the city.

Also on Tuesday, Fraser Health announced the proposed locations of two supervised-consumption sites in Surrey as part of an effort to curb a spike in the number of fatal overdoses.

Fraser Health said it would integrate supervised-consumption services into existing health-care facilities and provide drug users with suboxone and methadone in an effort to treat opioid addiction. Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner has consistently said that she does not support stand-alone safe-injection sites in Surrey that aren’t paired with other health services.

One site is proposed at the 94A Avenue Quibble Creek Sobering Centre and another on 135A Street in partnership with Lookout Emergency Aid Society, adjacent to Health Solutions (the SHOP Clinic), which provides outreach and HIV care. — With files from The Canadian Press