Let's Rethink the Decision on Consumption and Treatment Sites: An Open Letter to the Premier of Ontario
Dear Premier Ford,
During the Pandemic you and your colleagues followed the research and lead from the front – not from the politicized sidelines. We need you to follow the research now.
‘Word on the street’ two potentially fatal overdoses were reversed at the CTS in Kitchener in a span of only five hours this week alone. If the facility was closed, and the proposed HART Hub precluded supervised consumption with wrap around services – including wound care, mental health supports, and referral to recovery services – those two people would likely have died, alone.
Please reverse the decision to close all CTS in the Province of Ontario.
Clinical evidence confirms that harm reduction provided by the Consumption and Treatment Sites (CTS) – including the one located in Kitchener, operating for over five years without a single overdose death in the facility – are part of the response to these root causes. Your plan to close this CTS location – among others – despite its impact, and no complaints from the adjacent School and Childcare Program cited as ‘a rationale’ – will lead to deaths from overdoses.
Some of the vulnerable people for whom the ‘treatment beds’ are intended, will die before they get there. And many of the ‘wrap around’ services proposed with the new – ironically named – HART Hubs, are already in place at all of the CTS locations across the province.
You have heard that we have a humanitarian crisis on our streets; this is not time to take away any strategies that are proving to save lives. (Nor is this crisis a time to prioritize alcohol sales!).
Looking ahead to solutions that we all want for the sake of the vulnerable, and the health of all communities, Supportive Housing, ‘housing with supports’ with adequate funding for staffing is the way forward for many of our homeless neighbours and family members. This model has been tested and data is proving success of local agencies like the House of Friendship (ShelterCare), Indwell (St. Mark’s Place) and the YWCA (Block Line project), The Bridges, and Supportive Housing of Waterloo (SHOW), including a focus on the needs of Seniors, prove that Supportive Housing gets people out of shelters and encampments, and on with living. The CTS model literally keeps some of our neighbours and family members alive until there is housing with the supports they need. ALL communities are concerned about the future for our neighbours and family members who are homeless, many of whom also face mental health and addiction challenges.
Thank you for your consideration, and we await your response.
Supportive Housing Advocacy Waterloo Region (SHAWR)
Barbara Hill, Cathy Baer, Adam Cresswell, John Lougheed, Deb Schlichter, Catherine Stewart-Savage
Charter member of Waterloo Region Alliance to End Homelessness (WRAEH).
We support the SOLVE The CRISIS CAMPAIGN
