Hamilton opioid crisis: City still trying to ink lease with landlord for injection site

The city is still trying to firm up a deal with a landlord for a second supervised injection site in Hamilton after more than a year of searching for properties.

The delay has left a gap in consumption and treatment services (CTS) as overdoses increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, says Lisa Nussey, an advocate for drug users and homeless people.

The need for a second CTS has been clear since the first one opened and the pandemic has exacerbated every aspect of the crisis that predates it."

In December, city staff announced they'd found a property after having looked at 30 others in the downtown area. At that point, the real estate division was still firming up a lease for the undisclosed address.

But around March, the prospect of a deal evaporated even after floor plans were drawn, Michelle Baird, public health's lead on the file, said this week. We had a lot of confidence in this landlord."

There was back and forth, but with a lack of commitment from the landlord, real estate staff moved on, Baird noted.

I think some factors came into play where there was concern about the use of the property and whether or not it would result in concerns from neighbours."

Real estate staff have found another landlord, but the pandemic has put that work on the back-burner, Baird said.

Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre has operated a supervised injection site - technically called consumption and treatment services (CTS) - at Rebecca Street since 2018.

But one is not enough, Baird said. And we're seeing that through the overdoses that are occurring."

They trended upward just as the pandemic forced agencies and clinics to limit services, which has made it harder to access naloxone, a drug used to revive people from opioid overdoses.

In March, there were 37 calls for suspected opioid overdoses, spiking to 55 in April and settling at 46 in May. By June 15, there were 20 calls.

Fatal opioid overdoses in Hamilton - driven by fentanyl and its more powerful analog carfentanil - have steadily increased in recent years.

In 2018, 124 city residents died of overdoses, 41 per cent higher than the toll of 88 in 2017.

Due to a lag in provincial coroner's data, the latest probable or confirmed" fatalities are 90 between January and September 2019.

To open a supervised injection site, the city needs provincial and federal approvals, with funding flowing from the Ontario government.

Nussey, a midwife with the Shelter Health Network, questions why the search is taking so long. I just don't know what to tell a city that can't find a building."

Baird says the struggle to find a suitable location for a CTS - which must have certain dimensions for wraparound" social, housing and medical services - has been frustrating.

In March 2019, the city took the lead after several failed attempts by community agencies to find willing landlords.

But within two months, the municipality's agency, CityHousing, also said no to a CTS at First Place, its affordable seniors' highrise at 360 King St. E.

The city's plan involves shifting programs from Wesley Day Centre - a social-service and medical hub whose lease runs out in September at 195 Ferguson Ave. N. - to fulfil the wraparound" elements.

Those would have helped during the pandemic, says Nussey, noting many spaces where homeless people normally use washrooms or rested have shuttered.

Teviah Moro is a Hamilton-based city hall reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: tmoro@thespec.com