‘Giant step backwards’: Advocates condemn closing of London’s supervised consumption site after province pulls funding

CTV London's Brent Lale with local reaction to the upcoming closure of the Carepoint safe consumption site.

Corey Spizawka knows firsthand the importance of London’s supervised consumption site.

“For homeless people and for people that use, they’re going to use anyways, so it might as well be somewhere where they’re going to be safe and the community is safe,” said Spizawka, who was leaving the Men’s Mission across the street to head to Carepoint on Saturday.

“Instead of you seeing them doing it at Victoria Park or downtown, at least they’re in those closed doors there,” he added.

The Ministry of Health has indicated it will terminate funding for Ontario’s six remaining sites including Carepoint at 446 York St.

“It’s devastating for people who use drugs, people who are struggling with addiction and who are homeless, who don’t have any other place to use their drugs,” said Bruce Rankin, director of client services at the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection who operates Carepoint.

“To shut down the one place where people can go and use their drugs under medical supervision doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. From a public health perspective, it’s a giant step backwards.”

However, not everyone is opposed to the closure. At nearby Picadilly Motors, owner Elyas Somano calls the closure “a good decision.”

He’s arrived to work to find a deceased person in one of his vehicles, he’s had fires and even a person living inside one of his trucks.

“From the beginning, I think was the wrong decision to have it here in the middle of the downtown,” said Somano. “My advice is for the decision maker to have a facility for those guys outside of the city.”

London Coun. Susan Stevenson calls it “welcome news” for business and property owners nearby. She hopes this will send a strong message to redirect people to focus on treatment and rehabilitation.

“I’m hoping this creates a discussion within council and maybe the support to say we’re going to align with the province, we’re going to create recovery-oriented systems of care here in our city,” said Stevenson, London’s Ward 4 councillor. “And how can we support people who are waiting for detox beds? Coming out of detox beds? And for those who are walking a journey of recovery.”

Stevenson wants to see the city build a pathway to recovery to help people out of addiction with pre and post treatment beds and long-term sober housing.

“I think it’s a good news story for people who work and live and own property near the current supervised injection site,” said Stevenson. “There’s been studies in Toronto who closed four of the sites last year and there’s been no reported overdose increases or deaths, no extra emergency visits and the same came out of Alberta. I’m just not sure it’s going to make a noticeable difference on the street.”

Carepoint’s operators countered by saying they had more than 15,000 visits in 2025, reversed 218 overdoses and had zero new HIV infections related to drug use.

“I think there will be a lot of negative consequences,” said Rankin. “We did reverse 218 overdoses in 2025, so looking ahead, that would be 218 overdoses that could not be reversed. We know that communities who have robust harm reduction programs in place have the lowest rates of HIV and other transmittable infections. and we’ve just pulled out one of those really important pieces.”

London’s medical officer of health tells CTV News they will be taking time to consult with partner agencies to determine the full impact of the news.

“Carepoint has provided a critical service as part of our community’s comprehensive response to the opioid crisis,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Alex Summers at the Middlesex-London Health Unit. “Our commitment is to work closely with our partners at Regional HIV/AIDS Connection to support Carepoint’s clients during this transition.”

Like Summers, Rankin and his team are still digesting the news.

“We have a lot of work to do in the days and weeks ahead to try to ensure a smooth transition and a wind down of the program,” said Rankin. “We’ll be working very closely with our partners at the Middlesex-London Health Unit and others to ensure that we will continue to do all we can for the population that we’ve been serving.”

The remaining supervised consumption sides were given a 90-day notice, with the funding agreement ending on June 13, 2026.