Since opening in 2021, the Seymour prevention web site has been the topic of many complaints and two separate court docket challenges filed in opposition to town alleging elevated crime and dysfunction.
Article content material
The Metropolis of Vancouver has determined to not renew the lease of a controversial supervised consumption web site downtown following two years of neighbours’ complaints about public dysfunction and crime.
Commercial 2
Article content material
The transfer is being welcomed by some neighbourhood residents and defended by politicians with Vancouver’s majority ABC occasion. However critics say the choice might put lives in danger.
Article content material
The town leases the ground-floor area in a constructing on the nook of Seymour and Helmcken streets to Vancouver Coastal Well being for an overdose prevention web site, or OPS, which is operated by the native non-profit RainCity Housing and Help Society.
The power is supposed to supply a safer setting for individuals to make use of medicine as an unregulated poisonous provide continues to kill British Columbians at file charges. However because the web site opened in 2021, it has been the topic of many complaints and at the very least two separate court docket challenges filed in opposition to town by neighbours alleging elevated crime and dysfunction.
Commercial 3
Article content material
In a letter despatched final week to Coastal Well being, Sandra Singh, Vancouver normal supervisor of arts, tradition and neighborhood providers, wrote that town “won’t be ready to resume the lease” when it expires in March 2024.
The town is “very supportive of hurt discount providers resembling OPSes” and “acknowledges the numerous function they play in lowering danger of loss of life resulting from overdose,” Singh wrote. “Whereas this location has confirmed unviable for sustained operations,” she wrote, town appears ahead to serving to Coastal Well being discover areas for well being providers the place possible.
The Seymour overdose prevention web site was accepted in October 2020 by Vancouver’s earlier council. 4 councillors voted in opposition to executing the lease settlement with Coastal Well being for the ability, together with Couns. Lisa Dominato and Sarah Kirby-Yung, who have been each re-elected final 12 months to second phrases representing ABC. The opposite second-term ABC councillor, Rebecca Bligh, voted in favour of the lease in 2020.
Dawn
Article content material
Commercial 4
Article content material
First-term ABC Coun. Peter Meiszner has lengthy been vocal about what he sees because the Seymour facility’s destructive have an effect on on the neighbourhood. On Monday, he stated the choice in regards to the lease was made by metropolis employees and never council, however he believes it was the correct name.
Meiszner stated that metropolis employees determined to not renew the lease as a result of the ability’s operators “have been very unresponsive to the issues of the neighborhood about what was taking place outdoors the location,” together with individuals tenting on the sidewalk.
Meiszner, who lives within the neighbourhood, stated he receives every day emails from space residents complaining in regards to the property. He believes that whereas the ability is saving lives, it’s not correctly managed and the area is simply too small and ill-suited for the aim.
Commercial 5
Article content material
He hopes Coastal Well being can discover a higher location for an overdose prevention web site within the Yaletown or Downtown South space earlier than the lease expires subsequent March. He stated. “It’s VCH’s determination … I’m not concerned in that course of in any respect. VCH must discover a location earlier than the lease expires.”
OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle criticized the lease determination, saying that merely hoping Coastal Well being finds a brand new location isn’t a sufficiently severe response from the bulk ABC occasion contemplating the excessive stakes.
“What I’m calling for is the mayor and ABC to decide to protecting this area open till there’s a brand new location, in order that we don’t see a disruption in providers that results in extra deaths,” Boyle stated.
“I acknowledge it hasn’t been clean for the neighbourhood. And in addition, it’s a service that’s saving lives of individuals within the neighbourhood. Each of these issues are true,” Boyle stated.
Commercial 6
Article content material
“However we’d like a plan in place.”
RainCity didn’t reply to requests for remark earlier than deadline Monday.
In an emailed assertion, Vancouver Coastal Well being stated it’s “disillusioned” by town’s determination to not renew the lease.
Inhabitants well being knowledge confirmed that the world by which the Seymour web site is positioned data the second highest variety of overdose deaths yearly within the Coastal Well being area, after the Downtown Eastside, the assertion stated. “VCH has an obligation to look after the well being of all residents in our area. Within the time it’s been open, this OPS has saved many lives and linked individuals liable to overdose to important health-care helps and providers.”
Coastal Well being “has begun the method of figuring out a brand new location close by for these life-saving providers,” the assertion stated.
Commercial 7
Article content material
In Could, a subsidiary of Wall Monetary Corp., which owns the house constructing beside the Seymour overdose prevention web site, filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Courtroom searching for an order cancelling the ability’s lease.
The next month, the identical property proprietor, together with a neighbourhood resident, filed a proposed class-action lawsuit on behalf of space residents and companies, searching for damages and alleging the “ham-fisted operation and oversight of the small, poorly suited” web site had turned the world into “a centre level for crime and public dysfunction.”
The consultant plaintiff for the proposed class-action, neighbourhood resident Michael Wilson, stated Monday that whereas he was glad to be taught of town’s determination to not renew the lease at Seymour Road, the lawsuit was nonetheless persevering with and he hadn’t but determined whether or not to discontinue it.
Commercial 8
Article content material
-
New lawsuit targets Metropolis of Vancouver over Yaletown overdose prevention web site
-
B.C. developer asks court docket to close down Yaletown supervised injection web site
-
New overdose prevention web site in Yaletown generates help and criticism
Help our journalism: Our in-depth journalism is feasible due to the help of our subscribers. For simply $3.50 per week, you may get limitless, ad-lite entry to The Vancouver Solar, The Province, Nationwide Put up and 13 different Canadian information websites. Help us by subscribing in the present day: The Vancouver Solar | The Province.
Feedback
Postmedia is dedicated to sustaining a energetic however civil discussion board for dialogue and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Feedback might take as much as an hour for moderation earlier than showing on the location. We ask you to maintain your feedback related and respectful. We have now enabled electronic mail notifications—you’ll now obtain an electronic mail should you obtain a reply to your remark, there may be an replace to a remark thread you comply with or if a consumer you comply with feedback. Go to our Neighborhood Tips for extra info and particulars on how you can alter your electronic mail settings.
Be a part of the Dialog