LEVY: Dundas-Sherbourne neighbourhood "under siege"
Sue-Ann LevyMore from Sue-Ann Levy
Updated: August 3, 2019 9:44 PM EDT
Dundas and Sherbourne resident Anita Kunz says when she goes outside every morning she never knows what she will find in the walkway beside her house.
It could be used tampons or condoms, or used needles, human feces and/or lots and lots of garbage.
At times her voice breaking, Kunz told a community forum at Central Neighbourhood House this past week that the neighbourhood she's called home for 35 years is now "under siege."
"The is the first time in all those years that I regularly fear for my life," she said.
A local resident submitted this images of syringes and alleged drug use the Dundas St. E. and Sherbourne St. area in Toronto, Ont.
Kunz said she feels that lately it seems the rights of sex workers, drug addicts and drug dealers supersede the rights of "law-abiding, taxpaying citizens."
Some 45 residents attended the forum to discuss what can be done about the dizzying tsunami of drug addicts and dealers who have flooded the neighbourhood because of an Overdose Prevention Site operated by Street Health coupled with a 24-hour respite/drop-in site at Sherbourne and Dundas run by Margaret's.
Indeed we discovered — videographer Ernest Doroszuk and myself — what happens at the corner of Dundas and Sherbourne after dark when we spent some time in the area.
Local resident David Levangie speaks during a Ward 13 Forum on community safety in the Dundas St. E. and Sherbourne St. area held at Central Neighbourhood House at 349 Ontario St. in Toronto, Ont., on Wednesday, July 31, 2019. (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia)
Dozens of people, including drug dealers, were loitering in front of Margaret's — there because of "temporary" fencing in front of Street Health across the street — shooting up, urinating on the sidewalk, screaming obscenities and just hanging out partying into the wee hours.
But it isn't just happening at night.
David Levangie, a resident of nearby Seaton St., showed a video he recorded of a woman walking right up his front walk on a recent sunny Sunday morning and sitting on his porch while shooting up and screaming a stream of obscenities at no one in particular.
"Our area is becoming like downtown eastside Vancouver and that's not something to be proud of," he said, predicting it will become a "broader city issue" and very expensive to clean up.
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Levangie said he's been told he's just a NIMBY and a racist even though he has (and brought with him) pictures that show how unsafe the situation is in his neighbourhood.
Ewa Lubiewa-Michalska, another Seaton St. resident, said people jump the fence into her garden and use her furniture to "lounge on" — often leaving used condoms and needles on her front porch.
Amina Jamal, an associate sociology professor at Ryerson University, wrote in a statement to meeting organizer John Dimon that the neighbourhood has become really unsafe since last summer and she can't help but associate that with the opening of the overdose site at Street Health.
In a lengthy e-mail response, Street Health executive director Kapri Rabin said they opened the Overdose Prevention Site (OPS) in 2018 in response to the "escalating level of public drug use" and serious, "often fatal," drug overdoses in the neighbourhood.
"We agree the community centred around the intersection of Dundas and Sherbourne is in crisis," she said, claiming overdose issues were high at Dundas and Sherbourne before Street Health opened its OPS and the problem "is only getting worse."
Although representatives of Toronto Police's 51 Division — including Supt. Peter Moreira — were there to hear concerns, not one representative of the offices of Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, MPP Suze Morrison or MP Bill Morneau turned up.
Toronto Police Supt. Peter Moreira, of 51 division, speaks during a Ward 13 Forum on community safety in the Dundas St. E. and Sherbourne St. area, held at Central Neighbourhood House at 349 Ontario St. in Toronto, Ont., on Wednesday, July 31, 2019. (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia)
Dimon said Sharan Kaur and Adanette Frederick of Morneau's office confirmed their attendance but were no-shows.
Kaur and Frederick did not respond to two requests asking why they failed to attend.
Moreira, who contended officers feel the same "frustration" as that expressed by residents, came under fire for not doing more to protect the community.
He argued that they're serious about safety and are trying to meet the demand, but they're also trying to be "measured" in their approach and "mindful" of the needs of the harm reduction community (sounding an awful lot like Chief Mark Saunders and Mayor John Tory).
Sgt. Henry Dyck said neighbourhood officers are embedded in the community and the police are "doing their best."
A local resident submitted this and numerous other images of damage to vehicles in the Dundas St. E. and Sherbourne St. area in Toronto, Ont.
But he said the Toronto Drug Strategy is "not keeping up with the times."
He said everyone has to stop talking just about "harm reduction," especially since most of the sites are not open at night or on weekends when users do what they do.
Dyck said there are three treatments approved by Health Canada — Suboxone, Sublocade and the implant buprenorphine — that can be given to keep people from using for three months.
However, he said none of these treatments have been made available for "people who need them" and Toronto Public Health has not pursued them.
STATEMENT FROM KAPRI RABIN, STREET HEALTH (edited)
Since we opened our OPS we have supervised over 3,000 injections and reversed almost 50 overdoses.
Our OPS sees about 10-20 people a day, the majority of whom are women who feel vulnerable at larger sites. We are only open Monday to Friday during the day. To attribute all of the social problems of homelessness and drug use to this service is ludicrous.
The people you see gathering in this community do so because there is nowhere else to go. Since we are open only via fundraised dollars, any expansion (to evenings and weekends) is impossible.
Nobody is suggesting that an OPS is a one-step answer to the dual crises of a poisoned drug supply and homelessness that have been building for years. However, closing Street Health's OPS would only mean that the people on the corner would suddenly lack a safer option than using in alleys, parks and on people's properties.
Toronto Police ride by the new fenced-off overdose prevention site on Dundas St. E., just east of Sherbourne Ave., on Saturday, July 27, 2019. (Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network)
It is ludicrous to assume that removing any social services would somehow cause the desperate people we serve to give up drug use or leave the communities where many of them have resided for years.
(Rabin makes no mention of the drug dealers lured to the area or how many of the 3,000 they've served are repeat users)
SLevy@postmedia.com