The proximity of so-called “safe supply” clinics and homeless shelters to schools in London, Ont., is raising concerns among residents, school officials, and public health advocates about community safety, harm reduction, and zoning policy.
True North visited London—home to Canada’s first so-called “safe supply” clinic—to take a look at the issue.
On Dundas Street, the city’s historic downtown thoroughfare, children can be seen walking in droves on their way to school past a park known for being a meeting spot and marketplace for crystal meth dealers and consumers.
A ten-minute drive away, a Catholic middle school sits just down the road from a shelter where addicts can often be seen in the midst of drug-induced psychosis or overdosing.
Multiple residents told True North that rampant homelessness, drug addiction and individuals with mental health issues overtook the city roughly “ten years ago.”
That estimate, which was repeated consistently, coincides precisely with the city opening its first so-called “safe supply” clinic.
As the drug of choice in downtown London appears to overwhelmingly be crystal meth, it’s unclear whether “safe supply” clinics have directly caused the spread of homelessness, addiction and subsequent mental health crisis, or merely contributed to the problem.
In recent years, London has piloted harm reduction initiatives, including safer opioid supply programs — initiatives spurred by the city’s largely progressive municipal government and so-called “drug-liberation” advocates.
In response to concerns provincewide, Ontario’s government introduced measures to ban supervised drug consumption and treatment services within 200 metres of schools and child care centres — typically an area less than a five-minute walk away.
While the Ford government effectively banned consumption sites being placed directly next to schools and daycares last summer, public housing facilities—often hubs for illicit drug consumption in their own right—continue to operate nearby, sometimes sitting directly across the street.