Vancouver won’t renew lease for Yaletown overdose prevention site, no new location proposed

The City of Vancouver will not be renewing the lease of an overdose prevention site that’s been in Yaletown since 2021, raising concerns about future access to harm reduction services in the neighbourhood.

Vancouver Coastal Health, which oversees operations at the Thomus Donaghy Overdose Prevention Site at 101-1101 Seymour St., was given formal confirmation of the city’s decision last week, in a letter that was made public on social media Monday.

Sandra Singh, the city’s general manager of arts, culture and community services, wrote in the notice that the location has “proven unviable for sustained operations” and that its lease will end in March 2024.

“We trust that this notice does not diminish VCH and your operator’s participation in working with the City and site partners to attempt to manage congregation and the impacts thereof on the adjacent sidewalks at this location for the remainder of the lease term,” reads the letter dated July 19.

Back in April, ABC Party Coun. Peter Meiszner called for the OPS to be shut down, pointing to several issues raised by residents, including discarded needles on the nearby sidewalk.

At the time, Meiszner said he was opposed to closing the site without an alternative location. However, the city’s notice makes no mention of a potential new address.

On Monday, Meiszner repeated the sentiment to CTV News.

“I’m supportive of the site being relocated. I’m not supportive of the site being shut down without an alternate location,” he said.

Sarah Blyth, the executive director of the Overdose Prevention Society said this decision will only increase the stigma people who use drugs face.

Blyth said she would have liked to have seen a plan in place before the letter went out.

“It’s just a sad situation. I’m really disappointed," she said. "Peter Meiszner made a promise that he would find another space before they announced to shut this down and they need to do that.”

In the letter, Singh writes that the city will support VCH in “finding locations to site key health services” across Vancouver.

OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle is decrying the city’s decision, calling is “unacceptable” to close the Yaletown site without opening another, similar facility in the neighbourhood.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that if services at this OPS are disrupted, some of our neighbours will die,” reads a statement Boyle issued Monday. “I am calling on the council majority to keep their promise. I am calling on them to prioritize keeping people alive, by extending this lease until improved services are available.”

Boyle said the choice to not renew the lease is part of a trend she’s seeing from the ABC majority council. Earlier this month, council voted down a motion to extend leases on temporary modular housing sites.

“This isn’t a council that’s taking these crises seriously and it’s a huge problem,” she told CTV News.

The OPS is one of 12 serving different communities in Vancouver, according to the health authority. In a statement to CTV News, VCH said it’s disappointed by the decision of the City of Vancouver to not renew the lease for the OPS when it expires.

VCH said since the site was opened two years ago, it’s worked to address concerns from neighbours, including meeting with local stakeholders and conducting regular sweeps to pick up discarded needles.

In a statement to CTV News, the ministry of mental health and addictions said VCH has started the process of identifying a new location.

“Balancing the comfort, safety and security of neighbourhoods with the urgent and increasing need for substance use services is critical, ongoing work,” a spokesperson wrote.

‘HOSTILITY TOWARDS OVERDOSE PREVENTION SERVICES’

The OPS is one of 12 serving different communities in Vancouver, according to the city’s health authority.

These sites are part of the provincial response to the illicit drug overdose crisis declared in 2016. Since then, at least 12,509 British Columbians have died due to toxic drugs, according to data from the BC Coroners Service.

The city’s decision not to renew the site’s lease is part of a concerning trend, according to one lawyer at Pivot Legal Society.

“There is a sort of hostility towards overdose prevention services and the people who use them and I fear that the situation in Yaletown is going to be replicated across communities in Vancouver,” Caitlin Shane told CTV News Monday.

She says public health should take priority over perceived property value issues.

“It’s a provincial health service. (Overdose prevention sites) must exist,” said Shane.

In May, Wall Financial Corp., one of the city’s largest developers, filed a petition with the B.C. Supreme Court in May, complaining of an “immediate surge in issues” at one of its properties near the Yaletown OPS in the years since it opened.

The petition lists “incidents of people loitering or passing out along the block and in the entryway, of people attempting to gain access to the courtyard and the parkade (by following tenants trying to exit or enter their home) and of attempted and successful break-ins and theft.”