Increase in Ottawa paramedic calls for overdoses near closed drug consumption site: data

Paramedics, peer workers, and neighbours are responding to more overdoses near the Somerset West Community Health Centre. CTV’s Austin Lee reports.

Data from the City of Ottawa shows an increase in the number of overdose incidents paramedics have responded to since the closure of the supervised consumption site at the Somerset West Community Health Centre, corroborating the experiences shared by neighbours.

The drug consumption site at 55 Eccles St. closed on March 1. It was one of the first sites the government announced last year would close because it was within 200 metres of a daycare. It has since been converted into a homelessness and addiction recovery treatment (HART) hub.

Since the closure, residents and the ward councillor have said there has been a notable increase in crime and public drug use in the immediate area.

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CTV News Ottawa asked for the number of calls to paramedic services regarding overdoses in the area of Booth Street from Anderson Street to Somerset Street West, Eccles Street from Booth Street to LeBreton Street North, LeBreton Street North from Somerset Street West to Eccles Street and Somerset Street West from Booth Street to LeBreton Street North.

Figures provided to CTV News Ottawa, attributed to Paramedic Chief Pierre Poirier, show there were 89 calls for service related to overdoses in that area between March 1 and Sept. 30, 2024. In 2025, there were 106 calls in that same area, amounting to a 19 per cent increase in responses to overdoses in the city block around 55 Eccles Street since the supervised consumption site closed compared with the same period in 2024.

The difference each month was as follows:

• March 2024: 8 calls
• March 2025: 13 calls
• April 2024: 18 calls
• April 2025: 18 calls
• May 2024: 7 calls
• May 2025: 9 calls
• June 2024: 8 calls
• June 2025: 20 calls
• July 2024: 16 calls
• July 2025: 12 calls
• August 2024: 21 calls
• August 2025: 20 calls
• September 2024: 11 calls
• September 2025: 14 calls
• Total 2024: 89 calls
• Total 2025: 106 calls

Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Troster told CTV News Ottawa the statistics from paramedics don’t tell the whole story.

“The data provided by paramedics is just the tip of the iceberg because we know that peer workers and just regular, everyday neighbours, and also our ANCHOR non-police crisis service have also been reversing overdoses,” Troster said. “What’s captured in the paramedic data shows a trend, but it’s actually a much deeper trend that we’ve been seeing since the first day that the consumption site was forced to close.”

Troster says the closure of the supervised consumption site has led to an “explosion” in public drug use in the area.

“The Ford government said it was closing the consumption site presumably to get public drug use away from children. This has actually brought drug use closer to children,” she said. “There was one resident who found needles in her child’s stroller. Another business owner was pricked when he was gardening outside his business.”

She added the HART Hub at the Somerset West Community Health Centre is making a difference in the overall health of the people who access its services, but it is not solving the broader issue.

“This is a ‘both/and,’ not an ‘either/or’ situation. We need treatment, we need supportive housing, but we also need harm reduction,” she said. “If you take away the only semiprivate place where people can use drugs while being supervised, they’ll do it elsewhere, unsupervised.”

Derrick St. John, director for supportive housing and substance use health at the Somerset West Community Health Centre told CTV News Ottawa they are also seeing a rise in overdoses in the area.

Since the site has closed, the amount of people doing drugs has not decreased.  

“What really sticks out is the amount of support the community has needed from our services, particularly from our outreach services,” he said. “To give you an example, in June, we had 23 calls from the community, needing some assistance, and in September, we had over 110 calls. That could be anything from cleaning up improperly discarded paraphernalia to assistance with people suffering from substance use challenges, including overdoses.”

St. John said the number of people who use drugs has not diminished, but some of the regular clients of the supervised consumption site have not returned to the HART Hub.

“We are fairly busy now on a day-to-day basis. We are seeing some of the folks that we used to see through the consumption site. We haven’t seen all of them… But we’re seeing a good uptake from people. They are engaging, they’re slowly coming back," he said.

Neighbours share concerns

Area resident Marna Nightingale told CTV News Ottawa she’s concerned for the health of her neighbours.

“They’re residents, they’re clients of the clinic; I see the same people all the time, they live here. This is not some imported problem. These are my neighbours and they’re in very bad shape,” she said.

Nightingale said the clinic offered more than just a place where people could use drugs.

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“When people were going to Somerset West, there was an entire health clinic there. They were engaging with the clinic, and the clinic was engaging with them. They were using the showers; they were using the foot nurse—which is a much bigger deal than you think it is if you’re unhoused. They were using health-care services, they were using housing services to get into supportive programs, to get into rehab, to get into whatever they were ready for," Nightingale said.

Many of those services, excluding supervised consumption, are still offered at the Somerset West Community Health Centre, but Nightingale said the consumption service was often a first point of contact.

“It was a path out. The major thing that supervised consumption does is get people stabilized enough that they can think about having a future. And that’s gone,” she said.

Anne Marie Hopkins, the executive director of Cornerstone Housing for Women, which is on the corner opposite the Somerset West Community Health Centre, called the closure of the supervised consumption site a “devastating loss to the community” in an email to CTV News Ottawa.

“It is no surprise to me that the numbers are up. The closure of the CTS was a devastating loss to the community. And a blow to emergency services who now have to respond to crises that could have been dealt with inside the CTS,” she wrote.

“The unfortunate reality is that the closure pushes substance use outside into the neighborhood. It is really challenging to deal with community issues in a meaningful way when vital services get closed down. The toxic drug supply and overdose crisis is a complex one that has no easy answer. But the way forward is certainly not the closure or removal of services that saves lives and connect vulnerable people to services and supports. No one wants this. It has been incredible to see the way our colleagues at Somerset West have pivoted with these changes and support the community and we appreciate all they are doing.”

The provincial government claimed in 2024 that violent crime rose significantly in the area around the 55 Eccles St. site since the drug consumption site began operating, but used statistics for the entire Somerset ward, which includes multiple neighbourhoods, some more than two kilometres away from the site. Reporting from CTV News Ottawa showed that the crime rate did not change as significantly as the province suggested.

The government said it stood behind the figures it used when closing the supervised consumption site, adding in a statement, “Drug injection sites do not belong within 200m of our schools or daycares.”

Troster urged Health Minister Sylvia Jones to visit the neighbourhood and talk with residents about how the area has changed since the supervised consumption site closed.

The Ministry of Health said in a statement that more than 4,500 people have accessed services at the Somerset West Community Health Centre’s HART Hub since April 1.

"Instead of giving people tools to use illegal drugs, our government is making record investments to break the tragic cycle of addiction through expanded mental health and wraparound supports," said spokesperson Ema Popovic.

“Since April 1, 2025, more than 20,000 people have accessed services through the HART network — including nearly 4,500 at Somerset West. Data from the Chief Coroner shows a 41 per cent decrease in opioid-related deaths, while overdose calls to the Central Ambulance Communication Centre have dropped by 50 per cent compared to the same period last year."

Another ministry spokesperson clarified those figures are based on provincewide data, but also said citywide overdose calls to the Central Ambulance Communication Centre are on track to see a roughly 30 per cent drop year-over-year in 2025.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Austin Lee