Leslieville residents hold town hall on future of safe-consumption site

Safety around a safe-consumption drug site was the focus of a contentious community meeting in Leslieville, where earlier this month, a mother of two was struck and killed by a stray bullet in a daytime shooting.

Some community members say violence and drug use are on the rise in their neighbourhood, though there has been no confirmed link between the health centre and the shooting.

Andrea Nickel and Jeri Brown helped organize the town hall.

Nickel has lived in the neighbourhood for more than a decade and has been engaging with the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC) for a few years. She says she's seen a change in the community brewing.

"I think the challenge that we are seeing is an escalation of activity and illegal activity in and around the centre," she said. "What we are really asking is for safety and security. It's really about wanting to ensure that our kids can walk by there on their way to school."

On July 7, Karolina Huebner-Makurat, affectionately known as Caroline by family and friends, was fatally shot across the street from the health centre, which provides services for mental health and addictions and offers a safe-consumption site.

The 44-year-old was caught in the crossfire of a fight between three men. Toronto police have arrested one suspect, but two remain outstanding. 

'We've been brushed off as a community'

During the meeting, residents presented community-gathered data to the health centre. The data represents just over a month and a half of submitted reports.

It included over 350 incidents, most of which showed visible drug use, drug paraphernalia on the ground, aggressive language and fighting, and drug selling.

Brown says most people in the community don't want to shut the safe-consumption site down. 

"We'd like to see [the South Riverdale Community Health Centre] properly, functionally run this program," she said. "We are very supportive of this consumption and treatment service. We know that there are people in our community who rely on it. We know it saves lives."

Since Huebner-Makurat's death, the health centre has hired a security company to support the people using its services. Community members say that is something they've been asking for for months.

No infractions in last public health inspection

In a statement on its website, the centre's CEO said the city is going through a deepening mental-health crisis along with compounding poverty and homelessness.

"Over the last several months we have all witnessed the increased volatility and behaviour issues in our community," said Jason Altenberg, CEO of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre.

"We also know that everyone should feel safe in their neighbourhood and that no one should die on our streets."

Politicians of all three levels of government were invited to Wednesday's meeting.

Councillor for Toronto-Danforth, Paula Fletcher, said operating the safe-consumption site is a provincial responsibility.

Toronto Public Health, which performs annual inspections to ensure facilities are following provincial public health standards, found no infractions with the site in its last inspection on May 11.

Hopes for dialogue

Mary Ouimette works at the harm reduction centre and understands both sides of the issue.

"I'm not taking either side here," she said. "I [understand] when they walk by and people do have a crack pipe or whatever out... But this is where you get it so you don't get Hepatitis C or AIDS."

Liz Janzen, a concerned community member and longtime former Leslieville resident, agrees.

She supports the safe-consumption site, but says its future relies on government funding.

Some members of the community said the town hall didn't do enough to answer their burning questions and hope a dialogue will remain open.

"I came here to see the community unified," said Peter Bachman, a harm reduction worker at another safe consumption site. "I don't know if that actually happened."