WECHU to explore options for SafePoint location after province halts new CTS site approvals

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit says it's looking at what comes next for the SafePoint supervised consumption and treatment site location after the province declined to approve it.

"While this announcement is disappointing to us, we have begun exploring what opportunities may be in place for the site and will be reaching out to our partnering agencies to determine the best path forward for our community," CEO Ken Blanchette said in a statement Wednesday. 

The public health unit says it received official notice Wednesday morning. It follows the provincial government's Tuesday announcement that it would not be approving any future sites and closing ones within 200 metres of schools and daycares. The province also announced $378 million to fund 19 new Homelessness and Addictions Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs.

SafePoint opened on the corner of Wyandotte and Goyeau Streets in April 2023 with the blessing of Health Canada as what's known as an urgent public health needs site. But it has been closed since the end of last year pending separate approval from the province, which would have come with funding.

WECHU's application was in limbo for more than a year due to a provincial review of all Ontario sites that was sparked by a fatal shooting near a Toronto CTS site.

At supervised consumption sites, people use drugs under supervision so that they can get immediate care if they overdose.

The public health unit says in the time SafePoint was open, five overdoses were reversed on site. SafePoint had more than 1,200 visits from 249 people and 237 people were referred to mental health and addictions treatment. The site also provided first aid, primary care, drug testing and social services.

"The site's true impact, however, can best be described through the stories shared by those who accessed services, such as those who were able to reconnect with family or obtain employment and housing as a result of the support they received at SafePoint," reads Blanchette's statement.

Early coroner's data shows that 128 people in Windsor-Essex died from a drug-related cause last year.

While advocates for the site say abandoning a harm-reduction approach will lead to more overdoses and deaths, downtown Coun. Renaldo Agostino, who sits on the board of health, says he's cautiously optimistic about the provincial government's announcement. He's pleased to see new money for the HART hubs.

Agostino was initially opposed to the location of SafePoint and says he wanted to see what the eventual impact was, but ultimately, he welcomes any action toward addressing a problem he acknowledges is not simple.

"It's another step to (try) to help people. And even though it's not the step that a lot of people wanted, it's still a step in the right direction and we have to get behind it."

Agostino says he does not speak for the board, which will soon meet to discuss the issue. Agostino wants the board to pursue a HART hub in Windsor.

"I'll be the first person in line if they're accepting applications. Tell me where to go to and I'll go there tomorrow. I think anything we can get for support is something we need."

Leslie Laframboise, an outreach worker in Windsor, is also welcoming the province's new approach.

"I'm excited for a homeless hub, with all amenities in one spot to help the homeless and people with addiction," she said. "I was never a big fan of the safe injection site. I thought if you were going to have a safe injection site, it should have been in a hub or a mobile unit and go to where the people were."

 She says more treatment beds are needed to reduce the long wait people usually face.