B.C.’s health minister said Thursday that an overdose prevention site (OPS) in Vancouver’s Yaletown neighbourhood will not be proceeding, after backlash from the city’s mayor and business groups.
The site, which was set to be the new location for the OPS serving Vancouver’s downtown core, was to be located on 900 Helmcken St.
Its lease was scheduled to start on June 1, with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) saying services at the site — which would see trained staff watch people using drugs and preventing deaths — would have started shortly after.
But Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and local business associations said there was little consultation before the location was announced, and Sim even passed a motion to use city resources to block the site.
B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne said that, while Vancouver Coastal Health would work to establish OPS services in the downtown core, the province would engage with local stakeholders as it looks to balance public safety concerns and the needs of drug users. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
On Thursday, Health Minister Josie Osborne said in a statement that she had heard concerns from the city, local businesses and community partners on the relocated OPS.
“Vancouver Coastal Health will not proceed with the overdose-prevention site at 900 Helmcken St. at this time, and there is currently no planned date for opening,” she said.
Osborne said that the province would take steps to engage with local stakeholders, including the city, before any new site would open.
The Yaletown OPS was closed earlier this year after being relocated once already following public safety concerns and backlash from nearby residents.
When the Helmcken Street site was announced as the new location earlier this month, Jane Talbot of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association said safety was the top concern of association members.
“As conditions persist and street disorder intensifies, many are reaching a breaking point, running low on compassion and struggling to operate their businesses,” Talbot said at a news conference on May 5.
Sim had said at the same news conference that OPS services played a role in saving lives, but shouldn’t be treated as a standalone solution, and asked for the province to invest in more treatment and recovery options for drug users.
Health officials had said at the time that the downtown core has the second-highest rate of overdose deaths in the VCH region, and 94 people had died in the region last year.
“This is an essential health service. It’s there to save lives of people who live in the neighbourhood,” said VCH Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Patricia Daly at the time.
Osborne said in her statement that OPS services would continue to be provided in the area by a mobile site that provides limited services.
“Vancouver Coastal Health … recognizes the importance of ensuring these services support both vulnerable people in need of care and the businesses, residents and workers in surrounding neighbourhoods,” the statement read.
Harm reduction and recovery advocate Guy Felicella said the public consumption of drugs wouldn’t go away, even if the OPS doesn’t open. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
Harm reduction advocate Guy Felicella said that the public consumption of illicit drugs wouldn’t go away, even if the OPS doesn’t open in the downtown core.
“Having it pushed back to a later date doesn’t change anything that’s happening in the area, so [critics] are still going to actually see the public consumption that they’re complaining about,” he said.
Felicella said that overdose prevention sites are more than just a place for people to use drugs.
“It’s also a place for connection and it’s also a place where people can get access to detox and treatment services,” he said, adding it would now continue to be a challenge to connect drug users in the area with those services.