Police presence near Calgary consumption site has had positive impact, say business owners

It's been months since Calgary police boosted patrols at Calgary's only supervised drug consumption site.

But while some locals say it's been a welcome change, others still have serious safety concerns.

David Low, who runs the Victoria Park Business Improvement Area, said he isnoticing a difference.

"Overall it has had quite a positive impact," he said."We've even had a couple of days that were almost reminiscent of pre-consumption site, you know, food trucks out, kids in the park, people havinglunch and all that sort of thing," he said.

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Opioid overdose deaths have been on the rise in Alberta, with the highest rate of deaths happening in Calgary.

The Sheldon Chumir siteallows people to use drugs in a monitored, clean environment as part of a harm reduction model, while offering supports like counselling and addiction treatment.

But a January police report showed that reported crime and calls for service in the area have risen significantly since the site's opening.

Health Canada granted the consumption site's renewal to operate in January, but stipulated that Alberta Health Services must provide the agency with an outline of the measures it will take to address the increased crime and disorder, and how it will address inappropriately discarded equipment and supplies.

AHShas since developed an action plan which includes providing sharps containers and providing needle debris collection teams to address those concerns.

200 visits per day in March

The site has seen increased use, with an average of 200 visits per day in March 2019, up from 11 per day when it opened in 2017.

In March, drugs were consumed onsite 4,409 times and staff responded to 53 overdoses.

The site is across the street from a public park, and in nearby blocks there are businesses, restaurantsand homes.

"People use the adjacent park and surrounding space to, for example, cut up their drugs. That's something you can't do inside the supervised consumption site. So we're seeing less of that less incivilities, less inappropriate behaviour," Lowsaid.

Will Lawrence co-owns Shelf Life Books, which is kitty-corner to the facility. He said staff were finding people doing drugs or stealing books three to four times each week, but that's changed.

"We haven't really had an incident where we've had to report something, or ask people to leave, for about three weeks," he said.

Business owners have been given a direct email to report problems to police, or they can call the Downtown Outreach Addictions Partnership (DOAP)team to step in.

But not everyone is seeing improvements.

Susan Shaw, who lives in a condo near the facility, has written a letter to the premier asking for thesite to be shut down immediately.

"It's scary, I'veactually seen people shooting up. I've got pictures of people shooting up in and around my building. It is not safe," she said.

She said in the 13 years she's lived there most of the changes she's seen to the community have been positive, and have added value and diversity.

But, she said starting in early 2018 she noticed an increase in drug use and homelessness.

She owns her condo, and says money has been drawn from her building'sreserve fund to be spenton security and repairs due to increases in vandalism and theft, and she's worried her property value will decrease.

"With a 50-per cent increase in crime, who would knowingly move their family into this community and neighbourhood?" she wrote.