Abel Agum and Resty Nasasira are walking on Sherbourne Street with a trolley full of supplies — sterile needles, pipes, tourniquets, snacks and water bottles, as well as a waste bin to collect used paraphernalia.
As the Street Health outreach workers walk the back alleys and laneways near Sherbourne and Dundas streets, looking for people in distress, Naloxone kits hang on rusted chain-link fences like Christmas ornaments. They’re placed there by the workers, but also community members looking out for each other; typically, they’re all gone by the next day.
The neighbourhood has long seen one of the highest rates of opioid overdose calls in the city, but the in the cityÌý— including nearby Regent Park and The Works, operated by ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Public HealthÌý— has made the situation more dire. Site directors are seeing more clients, from different parts of the city, giving out more supplies, and responding to more public overdoses compared to when four sites closed on April 1.
The city’s drop-in centres, meanwhile, are seeing a “staggering†increase in overdoses, an indication that more people are choosing to use outside of the remaining sites, they say.
On Wednesday, the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Drop-In Network said there were eight overdoses in member drop-in centres in March. In April, that increased to 14. May saw 22 overdoses, while 31 were recorded in June, a 288 per cent increase since March. Of those overdoses, four were fatal.Ìý
“When supervised consumption sites closed ... we knew that the use would continue, but it would happen in the community, which is what these numbers are showing,” saidÌýÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Drop-In Network manager Melanie Joy.
Supervised consumption sites allow clients to use drugs under medical supervision in case of overdoses. The province ordered 10 sites across Ontario, including five in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, to close if they were located within 200 metres of schools or licensed daycares. One site, in Kensington Market, remained open because of as part of an ongoing court challenge.
Abel Agum, right, and Resty Nasasira, members of the Street Health outreach team, pick up debris and drug paraphernalia during one of their neighbourhood patrols.Ìý
Omar Mosleh/ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ StarThose sites were allowed to transition toÌýÎÚÑ»´«Ã½less and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hubs, which provide health-care services, but are prohibited from allowing drug use on site, distributing sterile needles or offering safer prescription opioids, such as methadone or hydromorphone.
The drop-in centre overdose numbers are from only 10 sites reporting out of more than 50 member organizations and probably only “a small snapshot” of what they’re seeing, Joy added.ÌýDrop-in centres support people who are homeless or precariously housed with meals, clothing and other services to meet basic needs, but most aren’t open overnight.Ìý
Street Health created new positions for outreach workers like Agum andÌýNasasiraÌýin May to respond to the greater need they’re seeing on the streets. In recent months, Agum said he’s finding more discarded paraphernalia and people in distress.
“Two years ago you’d hardly find needles, to be honest,†he said. “What you’d find mostly is pipes … Now you’re seeing a lot more people passed out outside.â€
Aaron Sherman, a client at Street Health near Sherbourne and Dundas, said it’s been harder for him to obtain supplies and he’s noticed more people reusing needles since supervised consumption sites closed in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.
Omar Mosleh/ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ StarPublic overdoses ‘shot up’
During a recent walk in the neighbourhood, Street Health’s rubbish bin is full to the brim with used needles, pipes and discarded condoms within two hours. Sometimes people try to hide them — burying them in the dirt or throwing them into sewer grates.
Street Health, a harm reduction agencyÌýwhich still operates a privately funded supervised consumption site, says May and June were its busiest months since 2023, according to Kelly White, manager of harm reduction programs.
“It feels constant that folks are running to the front desk and saying we need help,” White said. “As soon as those sites closed, the overdoses in public have shot up.
“Our existing services are really burdened. The nurses are seeing a huge increase in volume of patients.â€
She estimated they’re handing out aboutÌý400 to 500 sterile crack kits a dayÌý— about double compared to what they were distributing before sites closed.
But some people are still having a harder time accessing supplies. Community member Aaron Sherman, who uses crack cocaineÌýand would previously go to the now-closed supervised consumption site at Regent Park, said he’s regularly seeing people who relied on former sites reuse their needles.
“I find that I’m using my stuff longer … I’ve seen people pick up dirty needles off the ground because they can’t get a (sterile) needle,†he said.Ìý
Between April 1 and July 17, Street Health staff responded to 15 public overdoses nearby, whereas they would usually respond to a handful in that same window of time. Visits to the site in April 2025 were 82 per cent higher compared to April 2024 and 53 per cent higher in May year-over-year.
During a recent visit by the Star, Street Health nurses Isabel Johnston and Emilie Frenette looked out the window and noticed a man slumped on the sidewalk. They rushed out the door, checked his vitals and gave him a shot of Naloxone before paramedics arrived. It wasn’t long before the man was back on his feet.
Frenette said these occurrences are increasing in frequency, leading to more intensive interventions than would be required in a supervised setting.
She believesÌýmore people are choosing to use outside because the supervised site, with three booths, is much busier, sometimes leading to longer wait times. Clients also feel safer using in an area where they know workers will respond quickly if they overdose.
“There’s only so much that we can do, and then we have to end up turning people away,†she said. “And it feels horrible.â€
At the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site,Ìývisits are up about 35 per cent since April 1, according to staff, while the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre has also seen higher intake at its existing supervised consumption site, according to executive director Angela Robertson, who did not have a precise number. Sarah Greig, director of substance abuse and mental health at Moss Park Consumption and Treatment Service, said they’re seeing more clients than ever before.
Alexander Milnes, a client at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, said while he laments the loss of the supervised consumption site at its Bathurst Street location, the new HART Hub is providing valuable health-care services.Ìý
Omar Mosleh/ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ StarExperience at HART Hubs
Parkdale Queen West closed its second supervised consumption site on Bathurst Street and converted the site into a ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½less and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hub, or HART Hub. Several community members outside the Parkdale Queen West site had mixed feelings on the HART Hub model. They said they regret the closure of the supervised consumption sites, and the friends they say they’ve lost as a result, but say the HART Hub at 168 Bathurst St. is still providing valuable services.Ìý
Alexander Milnes, 48, says he was stable on methadone for 21 years before his mother and son died within a week in 2020, causing him to relapse and start using street opioids.
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½less by choice, he said he avoids hospitals because of the stigma that surrounds people who use drugs.
Through Parkdale Queen’s HART Hub, he said he’s been able to connect with health care andÌýaÌýsocial worker, and is now on a housing list.
“The HART Hub has been great … I’ve got more done with them than I have with any other program or any other service in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½,†he said.
Marijane Budd, a client at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, said she worries what might happen to her and her friends if more supervised consumption sites close.
Omar Mosleh/ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ StarMarijane Budd, who has been homeless on and off for about 30 years, had a prescription for fentanyl patches for pain management after being diagnosed with a brain tumour five years ago. When her prescription was cut off, she started using street fentanyl.
She said the HART Hub model has helped her by connecting her with a dentist. But she says the gains she’s made are offset by the friends she lostÌýdue to closure of Parkdale Queen West’s supervised consumption site.
In the last three months, she said seven of her friends who used the Queen and Bathurst consumption site have died.
“It affected them because they don’t want to travel, or they don’t have the TTC fare to get to this one,” she said. “So they were using outside or in a bathroom.”
She said she’s grateful for the services that are currently on offer, but worries what might happen if opposition to supervised consumption sites causes more to close.
“I’ve got somewhere safe to go,†she said. “But I’m gonna end up dying in an alley if they close.â€
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