As the province continues to grapple with an increasingly deadly toxic drug supply, the City of Vancouver has said it won’t renew the lease for an overdose prevention site (OPS) straddling Yaletown and the West End.
The lease is set to expire in March 2024, but in a July 19 letter to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), the municipality warns that while it is “very supportive of harm reduction services,” it is “not in a position” to renew the contract housing the Thomus Donaghy Overdose Prevention Site.
The decision was as a result of “concerns from the community” about “negative impacts” outside the Seymour Street facility, according to Coun. Peter Meiszner. In an interview, he said everyone agrees the OPS is a “life-saving service that is desperately needed,” but there have been issues with safety, camping, cleanliness and “street disorder” outside it.
“I think everyone recognizes that this is not an ideal location and size. It’s a very small space and it was put in place in an urgent crisis,” Meiszner explained.
“There’s no area to queue, there’s no area for respite after people use the site and there’s no inhalation component to the site either, so those are all challenges to some of the public realm issues we’ve been seeing and the impact on the neighbourhood.”
To date, no alternative site has been identified, although Vancouver Coastal Health has begun the search. In an emailed statement, the health authority said it is “disappointed” with the city’s decision not to renew.
“In the time it’s been open, this OPS has saved many lives and connected people at risk of overdose to essential health-care supports and services,” VCH wrote.
“As well as reducing the risk of death for people who use drugs, supervised consumption services improve community safety by reducing public drug use, public overdoses and drug-related litter.”
The health authority also said it has taken several steps in partnership with police and the site operator to address community complaints. Changes include the establishment of a quarterly tenants’ meeting with the city and regular sweeps to pickup garbage and needles, it said.
“VCH will work with site partners to continue delivering harm reduction services and maintaining the area as a good neighbor through the end of the lease term,” the health authority reassured.
The RainCity Housing and Support Society, which operates the OPS, declined an interview request.
Meanwhile, Coun. Christine Boyle of the opposition OneCity Vancouver party is urging Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver majority not to allow the lease to expire until a new facility has opened in the downtown neighbourhood.
“The Yaletown OPS was created in 2021 because that neighbourhood had the highest number of overdose drug poisoning deaths outside of the Downtown Eastside,” she explained, referencing statistics within the Vancouver Coastal Health region.
“Eliminating this space would be a loss for everyone. It would put more people’s lives at risk and it would push more people out onto the sidewalks and the park in the street.”
In June, 184 B.C. residents died from suspected overdoses on a toxic drug supply, bringing the total of lives lost to more than 1,200 this year. Illicit drug toxicity is now the leading cause of death in the province for people between 10 and 59, surpassing homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined.
Sarah Blyth, executive director of the Overdose Prevention Society, said she was surprised to learn the lease would not be renewed on Monday, but not surprised to learn the decision had been taken without a future plan in place.
She said the city must make good on previous indications it would find a new site before allowing the existing one to close.
“It’s a health service where people are going to die if it’s not there and there’s nowhere else for them to go, because people will just end up using in the alley alone and the likelihood of people surviving that is really low,” Blyth explained.
“If it’s not the right location, we need to find another one.”
Blyth suggested the City of Vancouver should spearhead that process rather than VCH since it will likely be the municipality that approves or rejects the authority’s suggestions, and that could delay the opening of a new site.
Outside the OPS on Monday, one user called the lease expiry “bullshit” and said the facility does an “immense amount” of good for its visitors. More space would be nice, he added, but he’s concerned about a gap in services.
“It’s one of the places that does a lot more than most … good staff, they care, they help everyone here,” Daine Vollman told Global News. “It’s an awesome place. Their hours are awesome. They’re open late for us.”
Another user, Alexander Polley, said it’s the only site he’s aware of in the neighbourhood and its loss would be a “major setback.”
“I get the community around here doesn’t want it, but at the same time, there’s going to be something to tradeoff, right?”
The pair said they do their best to cleanup after themselves and outside the facility.
Nearby neighbourhood resident Bernie Schneider, however, said needles continue to get left behind, posing a safety risk to his dogs and local children. Not renewing the lease may be caving into community pressure, he added, but from a safety perspective, “it’s not a good scene” and he understands the city’s choice.
“I myself have family members that are in active addiction and I understand what we’re trying to do as a city, in giving them as many opportunities to live their life based on choices and decisions that they make, and trying to support them in such a way that they can remain alive.
“The challenge I find being a resident here — and my wife and I have the same issues — is we have two dogs and we walk in the community and for example, right here on the playground, we see discarded needles.”
Meiszner said when a new facility is identified, he’d like to see a “very clear plan” for managing the space around it — something “missing” from the Yaletown proposal, approved in the midst of the pandemic in October 2020.
The city has had to spend tens of thousands of extra dollars on sidewalk cleaning and security outside the facility, he added, as well as remove an outdoor patio at a nearby community centre, due to camping.
“I think VCH clearly understands that that needs to be a major component of any new site in order for it to be accepted and successfully integrated into the community,” Meiszner told Global News.
According to RainCity’s website, the Thomus Donaghy Overdose Prevention Site on Seymour Street is the only one in Vancouver outside the Downtown Eastside and offers drug-use supervision, treatment for overdose, drug testing, harm reduction supplies and education, referral to health services and other addictions and social supports.