No safe injection site, homeless shelters force those in need in Dryden, Ont., to help each other

In Ontario's smallest city, Dryden, drug-related overdoses and deaths are rising.

There arealso heightened calls for evidence-based solutions, like creating safe consumption sites, to help vulnerable people in the cityof 8,000, located 350 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay.

But when someone like Shauna Pinkerton, who has lived with addiction for decades, brings that conversation to the people charged with making those decisions, she runs into the same sort of answer.

"They're like, 'Here's a five-year community wellness plan that we've put together, so in the next five years, you guys should be able to see some progress,'" Pinkerton said.

"We don't have five years."

Thegulfbetween those who say they need action and help nowand those charged with making it happen is ever present in Dryden, and it's generating intense frustration for peoplewho are watching their friends die.

No safe consumption site

Pinkerton pulls a paper bag out of her garage.

It's filled with clean needles, alcohol swabs, sterile water, spoons and filters, and empty sharps containers.

She's about to visit a few houses in the citywhere she knows people gatherto use drugs like fentanylor crystal meth, and she helps them becauseshe'drather they use clean suppliesto prevent spread of disease.

Armed with multiple kits with theopioid-overdose rescue drugnaloxone, she often staysat the houses while they're using to watch out for their safety and any signs of danger.

Pinkerton feels obligated to help because there are no supervised, safe drug-use areas in the city, and drug-related deaths are on the rise.

The safest place for an addict to be using right now is with other addicts because they know how to take care of you.- Shauna Pinkerton

"I hate to say it, but the safest place for an addict to be using right now is with other addicts because they know how to take care of you," she said.

There are days, Pinkerton added, that she walks into a house and immediately has to administer naloxone. Within an hour, she'll have to administer the medicineseveral other times.

Seventeen people died in 2020 from an opioid overdose in the area covered by the Northwestern Health Unit, which includes Dryden among 19 small municipalities and 39 First Nations.

Pinkerton said Dryden isin serious need of a safe consumption sitewhere people can inject or consume substances in a clean environment under the supervision of trained staff.

Gillian Lunny, manager of the Northwestern Health Unit's sexual health and harm reduction program, knows all too well about that important safety piece that's missing in Dryden.

Lunny said there's a growing body of researchindicating safe consumption sites work best when they are connected to other services.

"So in that same location, you can use a substance and know you won't die from doing it. But there's also a social worker there, and there's treatment right upstairs, or there's someone to help you get connected with housing."

But to actually makea safe consumption site a reality, Lunny said,a number of things have to align.

The relevant partners need to come together, and "there needs to be the energy behind it," Lunny said.

She said anotherbarrier is relevant agencies simply don't have the resources or staffing to get the ball rolling.

"With COVID, we have very small offices, and when you have to pull every nurse you have into case and contact management or into COVID clinicsright? Sometimes there's other things that have to take a priority."

Lunny said a feasibility study needs to be conducted before any plans can be made for a safe consumption site. She said theNorthwestern Health Unit is looking into getting such a study going, but she couldn't give a timeline for when it may begin.

No homeless shelter

Mikey Verbonac lives in a one-bedroom apartment off a main street in downtown Dryden.

He knows how difficult it can be to find a safe spot to sleep when you don't have a place to call home he's done that before so heoften makes space on the floor where people can rest.

"When you gotta get up to use the washroom, you gotta crawl over bodies because I got nine, 10 people here sometimes at night," he said.

The most recent count bythe Kenora District Services Board, in 2018, found67 people in Drydenwere experiencinghomelessness,and there are no shelters for those individuals. Verbonacsaidtheyneeda shelter, and with winter approaching, the city needsit now.

Henry Wall, chief administrative officer of the Kenora District Services Board, agrees with Verbonac in principle, but saidthe city needs a drug strategy before it can set up a shelter.

"If we were to develop an emergency shelter, say tomorrow, we're going to have a significant human services failure."

He pointed to the shelter in neighbouring Kenora, which the district services board temporarily closed just six months after it opened in February 2019 because of concerns about drug use, and safety ofbothstaff and the people using the shelter.

Wall said the issue of homelessness in Dryden didn't happen overnight.

"It's going to take us time to plan to do it right," he added, but couldn't sayhow much time is needed.

Police and emergency medical service(EMS)costshave also risen dramatically over the last decade to address the social and health crises spurred by growing addiction and homelessness, which Wall said makes it all the more important to consider how to support people as cost effectively as possible.

"It's going to require intentional, meaningful investments in prevention," he added.

'Political will' needed to get supports

This wait-and-see approach by the people responsible for gettingsupports in place for those living with addiction and homelessness is frustrating, said Sarah Kennell,national director of public policy for the Canadian Mental Health Association.

"Using the excuse of 'we need a strategy in place' is, to me, an insult to the work that's been done in other parts of the country where we're seeing really innovative, cost-effective approaches to service delivery that can ramp up on a dime," Kennell said.

Safe consumption sites and shelters have been popping up across Canada, she said, and their best practices can be adopted and scaled to otherrural locations.

"I don't think it's a lack ofknowing what to do or not having a strategy or approach in place," Kennell said.

"It does come down to political will and resources."

Resources people on the frontlines say they need. Resources people in decision-making seats say they don't have.