YWCA Hamilton safer-drug-use pilot saves 53 lives
Since YWCA Hamilton opened its overnight safer-drug-use pilot a year ago, there have been no fatal overdoses.
In fact, staff at the MacNab Street South building haven't called paramedics once to respond to such emergencies.
That's a sharp contrast from the five to seven times a week they were summoned in the past.
Instead, staff have handled overdoses on-site by administering oxygen and, if necessary, using naloxone.
The intent and purpose of our safer-drug-use space was to save lives and we've done just that," Mary Vaccaro, who oversees research and program development for the pilot, told city councillors Thursday.
We've saved the lives of 53 women and non-binary people who had drug poisonings and overdoses in our space since we've opened."
Vaccaro offered that snapshot of the pilot ahead of a call by councillors to declare emergencies on the overlapping crises of opioid overdose, mental health and homelessness.
Led by Coun. Brad Clark, city politicians voted 7-0 to have Mayor Andrea Horwath formally urge the province to step up its game to address the worsening catastrophes.
The hope is that a united front of municipalities will pressure the province to respond, Clark said.
We're not the only ones experiencing these challenges," he told The Spectator after the emergency and community services committee vote.
Other urban centres across Ontario are also grappling with spikes in homelessness, as well as increased challenges with mental illness and opioid overdoses, he said.
We're all saying it amongst ourselves in the backroom, This is an emergency.' But we need to say it publicly."
Clark's motion, which awaits final approval at council next week, takes a page from similar emergency declarations by Niagara Region and St. Catharines councils.
The wide-ranging motion urges the province to create a multi-sectoral task force to develop a robust" opioid response plan, and, more specifically, bolster supervised drug-use sites, safer-supply initiatives and access to addiction medicine.
The emergency declarations come as city officials contend with overburdened shelters and people living in tents, while housing costs rise and government funding recedes.
Staff have emphasized that provincial dollars tied to the COVID-19 pandemic have stopped flowing, but demand for housing and health services remain heightened.
We're desperate. There is no viable replacement for the social-services-relief funding," Angie Burden, general manager of healthy and safe communities, told The Spectator.
Earlier this month, the Progressive Conservatives unveiled an additional $202 million a year for homelessness-prevention programs, including supportive housing, in their 2023 budget.
However, the $202 million increase comes nowhere near" the pandemic-relief funding and is a drop in the bucket" compared to what's needed.
As such, the city faces difficult choices, Burden said. The minute you allocate to one program in need, there's another 50 that could use the same dollars."
In 2023, Hamilton's total investment in housing and related programs will reach $146.6 million, of which 52 per cent is municipal funding, 26 per cent from the province and 22 per cent federal, the city noted in a recent news release.
At city hall, Vaccaro said the YWCA's safer-drug-use pilot, a partnership with harm-reduction group Keeping Six and the Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team, has operated on roughly $400,000.
We are actively searching for funding at the provincial and federal level."
Among the pilot's 203 unique visitors since opening last April are women and non-binary people who use the YWCA's overnight drop-in space for those experiencing homelessness, live in its transitional-housing program or sleep outside.
The safer-drug-use space has served as a point of connection" for those who may not otherwise access conventional health and social services, said Vaccaro, who's also a McMaster school of social work faculty member.
This really is a made-in-Hamilton approach," she said. And our intention has been to develop and pilot an innovative model of providing life-saving services that can be replicated by other shelter providers locally and across Canada."
Teviah Moro is a reporter at The Spectator. tmoro@thespec.com