Lowertown Community Association expresses growing concerns over Ottawa’s opioids issue

The Lowertown Community Association said Ottawa’s drug problem, concentrated in the ByWard Market, has become dramatically worse over the summer months.

While the market and surrounding neighbourhoods form the epicentre of the city’s opioid epidemic, residents in and around the ByWard Market are sounding the alarm.

Sylvie Bigras, president of the Lower Community Association, told The Sam Laprade Show while some residents are in fear of leaving their homes, businesses are losing customers and even closing their doors.

“In a recent meeting with city officials, residents were breaking down in tears about what they now go through everyday, living in Lowertown,” she said.

With three safe injection sites and three homeless shelters located within a few blocks of each other in the ByWard Market, drug users and the homeless are heavily concentrated in that area.

In an Ottawa City Council meeting last week, a number of businesses, organizations and residents weighed in on the situation. Bigras said residents expressed fears in leaving their apartments or homes. with some witnessing overdoses and people being revived.

“It’s something that’s hurting businesses and residents and it’s not helping those vulnerable and unhoused, where predators are preying on them and they’re not getting the help they need.” she stated.

While city council is taking steps to prioritize this growing crisis, Bigras said this has taken a toll on businesses in the downtown core who are losing clients and visitors, with some shutting their doors.

“We had one of the providers burst into tears at the meeting with the mayor, because she said her livelihood is gone, and she has to close this week,” she added.

According to Bigras, Ottawa has identified policy changes that are needed, but it’s now a question of finding the political will to change the status quo.

Based on studies, decentralizing services has proven more effective in other countries, dispersing smaller-scale services across cities.

In addressing Ottawa’s growing homeless population, Bigras said our city’s unhoused are not looking for an apartment or house, but a safe space – a room with a door that locks,

‘A Room of My Own’ campaign is working to identify safe spaces that can be used as transitional housing, where homeless can have access to their own room, for a feeling of privacy. This includes vacant spaces, like unoccupied office buildings.

Bigras goes on to say, they’re seeing more people than ever, moving out of shelters and into transitional housing. With a growing need for more transitional housing, the City is working to build new facilities however, this takes time.

“There are spaces that the unhoused can have – they’re not looking for something new or big, they just want something that’s safe and they can lock the door at night,” she added.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a sharp rise in opioid overdoses in the Valley, with significant increases in calls to emergency services and emergency department visits.

According to Ottawa Public Health (OPH), there’s been an average of 99 emergency room visits per month for overdoses, so far this year.

Over the same period in 2022, the city saw an average of 71 emergency room (ER) visit per month for overdose – marking an increase of 39 per cent in the first six months of 2023.

The Lowertown Community Association said community members are seeking more help from the City in addressing the worsening opioid crisis. The organization is also calling on councillors to identify safe spaces for the unhoused population.

Stephanie Plante, city councillor for Rideau-Vanier, told Wake up with Rob Snow with guest host Derick Fage on Aug. 30, she was a part of an emotional meeting that took place recently with small business owners in the ByWard Market.

“They’ve been hit with petty theft and overdoses, and it just impacts them more,” said Plante. “They don’t have a lot of staff, they’re only open for certain hours, and can’t afford private security,”

Plante goes on to say, rather than beautifying our city, Ottawa should be focused on building more housing and weening off emergency shelters.

Part of finding a solution includes decentralizing social services and welcoming smaller shelters with programs to help those most vulnerable, across the city, she pointed out. But most residents are not in favour of shelters and other services present in their neighbourhoods.

According to Plante. 70 per cent of opioid overdoses are in single family homes, in private dwellings outside of the downtown core. These cases make up the majority of what ambulances are responding to, she added.

“Opioids are happening everywhere and people who want help have to come downtown, which doesn’t make sense because we’re pulling them away from their families, supports, and taking them into the vortex,” said Plante.

Every ward across the city should have access to services residents need, including food banks, parks, recreational centres, supportive housing, addiction services, and more, she explained. It’s the city’s responsibility to ensure these needs are met, no matter where residents live.

“Concentrating services is not beneficial, and the number one thing homeless people want is a roof (over their heads) and dignity, and I hope we can give them that,” expressed Plante.

With a growing number of calls for opioid overdoses in the Capital, paramedics are receiving support from firefighters, helping to administer the life-saving drug Naloxone, as well as other measures, such as CPR or ventilation.

Naloxone is a synthetic drug that can temporarily reverse an overdose by blocking Opiate receptors in the brain.

Ottawa firefighters and paramedics have been dedicating more time in responding to opioid overdoses across the city, increasingly having to administer Naloxone.

Paramedics have received over 1100 calls for opioid overdoses in Ottawa in 2023, alone. In partnership with Ottawa paramedics, firefighters have been trained to administer Naloxone, in efforts to help as the opioid crisis has worsened over the past several years.

Ottawa paramedics administered naloxone to 314 people between January and July of this year, compared with 330 people throughout all of 2022, according to a report.

Additionally, Ottawa firefighters have administered roughly 80 doses of Naloxone between January and June 2023, said Ottawa Fire Services media relations officer, Nicholas Defazio

Ottawa Paramedics spokesperson, Marc-Antoine Deschamps, told The Sam Laprade Show, the opioid crisis is more widespread than most assume. In addition to tainted drugs, people are overdosing on counterfeit prescription drugs laced with Fentanyl, and this is not just a ByWard Market problem, but gas extended to counterfeit prescription drugs laced with fentanyl.

Residents can also help in battling this crisis, with Naloxone kits free for anyone with an OHIP Card. A list of pharmacies offering complimentary kits can be viewed here.