Leslieville residents hold town hall on future of safe-consumption site

Safety around a safe-consumption drug site was the focus of a contentious community meeting in Leslieville Wednesday night.

Some community members say violence and drug use are on the rise in their neighbourhood.

"These concerns go back to 2018, a year after this safe-injection site opened," one man said outside of the meeting. "There are 100 children who live on [nearby] Heward Avenue."

"We came here to support everyone," another man interrupted, booing.

Earlier this month, Karolina Huebner-Makurat, affectionately known as Karoline by family and friends, was shot and killed across the street from the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC). The health centre provides services for mental health and addictions and offers a safe-consumption site.

The 44-year-old mother of two was caught in the crossfire of a fight between three men. Toronto police have arrested one suspect, but two remain outstanding. They have not confirmed a link between the health centre and the shooting.

Andrea Nickel and Jeri Brown helped organize the town hall.

Nickel has lived in the neighbourhood for more than a decade and has been engaging with the health centre for a few years. She says she's seen a change in the community brewing.

"I think the challenge that we are seeing is an escalation of activity and illegal activity in and around the centre," she said. "What we are really asking is for safety and security. It's really about wanting to ensure that our kids can walk by there on their way to school."

Residents presented community-gathered data to the health centre. The data represents just over a month and a half of submitted reports.

It included over 350 incidents, most of which showed visible drug use, drug paraphernalia on the ground, aggressive language and fighting, and drug selling.

Since Huebner-Makurat's death, the health centre has hired a security company to support the people using its services. Community members say that is something they've been asking for for months.

Brown says most people in the community don't want to shut the safe-consumption site down. 

"We'd like to see [the South Riverdale Community Health Centre] properly, functionally run this program," she said. "We are very supportive of this consumption and treatment service. We know that there are people in our community who rely on it. We know it saves lives."