‘Our work is never done’: East Toronto supervised consumption site closes its doors amid shift in Ontario drug policy

An outside shot of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre at 955 Queen St. E. (Joanna Lavoie/CP24)

The Toronto supervised drug consumption site (SCS) that prompted an Ontario government review after a deadly shooting outside the facility in 2023 is shutting its doors for good Friday.

The provincially-funded keepSIX Consumption and Treatment Service (CTS) was located within the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC) at 955 Queen St. E. It officially opened in November 2017 and was a key part of the east-end centre’s long-running and award-winning COUNTERfit harm reduction program.

KeepSIX, however, was cast into a negative spotlight after a July 7, 2023 gunfight claimed the life of 44-year-old Karolina Huebner-Makurat. The married mother of two who walking in the area over the lunch hour when she was struck by a stray bullet and died in hospital a short time later. Three suspects, one of whom worked at the site, have since been arrested and charged in connection the shooting, while a fourth remains at-large.

Fatal shooting led to review of SCSs across province

The incident led the government to procure two reviews of SRCHC’s SCS as well as conduct a “critical incident review” of all sites across the province. In the end, changes were recommended, but it was also found that these sites provide a “necessary public health service,” one that saves lives and prevents death by drug overdose.

Despite the findings, the province announced a little more than a year later that it would be shifting its approach to unregulated drugs away from harm reduction to a more abstinence-focused model.

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Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones unveiled details about this new direction in August 2024.

One of the first orders of business was a ban on SCS located within 200m of schools and childcare centres. Jones said that they’d be introducing new legislation that fall that would result in the closure of 10 such sites across the province, five of which are located in Toronto, by March 31, 2025.

Nine of those SCS are funded by the province and are now in the process of closing.

In their place, the provincial government is opening what are known as Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs. A ministry spokesperson recently told CP24 that $529 million will be invested to create 27 such facilities across Ontario. The province previously said they’d offer “24/7 intake, medical monitoring and referrals; outreach, wrap-around services, and supportive housing connection substance use treatment and primary care, as well as outpatient medical specialty services.”

The tenth location, Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site at 260 Augusta Ave., is donor-funded and remains open pending the outcome of a charter challenge.

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Bill 223, now know officially as the Community Care and Recovery Act, 2024, was passed on Dec. 4 without committee review, input from affected communities, or debate.

Aside from closing the 10 SCS sites, it also mandates additional safety and security measures at the remaining ones and prohibits municipalities or organizations from opening new sites or seeking federal money for safe supply programs, without the province’s approval. The legislation also bar municipalities from applying for drug decriminalization exemptions from the federal government.

South Riverdale CHC officially shared the news of the March 21 closure of its supervised consumption site earlier this month on social media citing “limited staff availability.”

“Over the past eight years, we have had many ups and downs but, through it all, we have reached thousands of people and saved hundreds of lives. Our compassionate staff, including community health workers, social workers, nurses and physicians, have made countless referrals to health and other services, such as housing support and mental health treatments, and provided team-based primary care, counselling, vaccinations, foot care, wound care and more,” the organization’s CEO Shannon Wiens said in a March 19 news release, noting that that staff have been “diligently preparing for the closure by providing overdose response training, referrals, and planning for the continuity of wraparound care for their most vulnerable service-users while keeping the community informed.”

“Grief and loss are not feelings that are unusual for our staff, clients and family members who use, work in or support our services and many are feeling the loss at the impending closure of keepSIX. We are leaning on each other and remembering our work is never done – we will just need to do it differently in the coming year.”

This closure has been especially heart wrenching as five SRCHC community members, one of whom was a long-time staff member at the site, passed away in recent weeks.

On Feb. 26, SRCHC hosted a final open house for keepSIX.

Many current and former staff members as well as past and present clients and community members attended the at-times sombre gathering, sharing stories about the innovative, life-saving work that was done there, how it deeply impacted their lives, and how much it will be missed.

During the open house, Wiens took a few moments to remember COUNTERfit’s late founder, Raffi Balian.

“He embodied all that was good in the world and as a new health promoter he taught me about harm reduction and how to support our clients walking through the door,” Wiens shared of Balian, who she said “believed that everyone one who walked through our doors could be a service deliverer.”

Moving forward, SRCHC will be a co-lead of the new East Toronto HART Hub, which is set open next month at 1156 Danforth Ave. and will be supported by 13 local organizations. Three other HART hubs are also slated to open in April at 168 Bathurst St., 465 Dundas St. E., and at another yet-to-be-determined site downtown.

Wiens said the new east-end hub would provide low-barrier access to primary care, mental health, and substance use supports with direct referral to housing and other support services.

“In preparation for opening the new service, SRCHC has been informing CTS clients of the options available to them, including how to access the supervised consumption services that remain open,” SRCHC said in the release, adding that staff have also been conducting overdose response training on a weekly basis with clients and their families as well as interested community members and local business owners and their staff.

Gabriella Skubincan, SRCHC’s director of community engagement and communications, underlined, however, that closing keepSIX “will not end the toxic drug crisis.”

“As part of the plan to close the site, we launched a social media campaign to help educate people about the actions they can take if they encounter someone using drugs, discarded needles in their neighbourhood, or someone in need of emergency medical services,” she said.