The keepSIX Consumption and Treatment Service at the Riverdale Community Health Centre (CHC) officially closed its doors on Friday.
It was forced to close under provincial legislation that restricted supervised drug consumption sites from being within 200 metres of schools and childcare centres.
The ban will force 10 of the 17 provincially regulated consumption sites to close across Ontario, including five in Toronto. They will be replaced by new treatment hubs, called Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs.
In a statement posted on social media, the Riverdale CHC said this marks the end of an important service.
“We remain dedicated to providing compassionate care, equitable harm reduction services & advocating for the wellbeing of our clients,” read the statement.
Riverdale residents previously aired their concerns about the criminal activity around the site especially after 44-year-old Karolina Huebner-Makurat was accidentally struck by gunfire and killed near the area in July 2023.
A woman who worked as a community health worker was later charged in the daytime shooting. Huebner-Makurat’s death prompted the review of consumption sites by the province.
Advocates fear closure of sites will lead to more deaths
Healthcare workers, advocates and homeless people have all said consumption site closures would lead to more deaths as the HART Hub model does not permit supervised consumption, safer supply, or needle exchange services.
Toronto Public Health has called on the Ford government to allow increased access to supervised consumption sites that are available within the legislation and permit needle exchange services within HART hubs to reduce the transmission of communicable diseases.
They add the closure of the consumption sites will also put additional strain on Toronto Paramedic Services, Toronto Police and Toronto Fire Services.
Meanwhile, a collective of library workers in the province are concerned about the impact on libraries amid the imminent closure of Supervised Consumption Sites.
They recently conducted a survey and found that 41 per cent of Ontario library workers have responded to a suspected overdose at work and only half felt confident in how they handled it.
“Our jobs increasingly include responding to drug poisonings (overdoses), regular emergency medical care, and crisis intervention … The closure of SCSs will place an even bigger burden on underfunded, understaffed, and underprepared public spaces like the library,” read their statement. “As library workers, we are bracing for the loss of these vital services and the impact it will have on our communities.
They urged the Ontario government to rethink the decision. “If the Government of Ontario goes against its own internal research that states supervised consumption sites save lives, more Ontarians will overdose and die in public libraries.”
