EASTSIDE GROUP READIES SAFE-INJECTION SITE

Funded By Donations, The Hastings Street Facility
Could Be First Of Its Kind In North America

The first safe-injection site for drug users in the
city and the continent has been built and is ready to open.

Located in the 100-block of East Hastings where the city's most active
open drug market operates, the facility was created by a Downtown
Eastside non-profit group known for its innovative work creating
housing and support for drug users in the neighbourhood.

"We built it because we were frustrated at how many people are still
dying of overdoses," said Liz Evans, a nurse who is one of the
founders of the Portland Hotel Society, which currently houses about
250 people in the Downtown Eastside in four buildings, besides running
a life-skills centre for addicts.

"This is a space that restores some safety and dignity to the people
with this problem."

On Monday, Evans, her partner Mark Townsend and others were putting
the finishing touches on the storefront facility, called InSite,
putting up signs and bringing in 2,200 tulips to represent the people
who have died of overdose deaths in B.C. since 1994.

The site, a 1,500-square-foot space on the north side of Hastings
Street, includes six "stalls" where people can inject intravenous
drugs, with a sink and mirror at each one, an observation platform at
the back of the room, a spacious waiting room and the feel of a
low-budget art gallery, with its high ceilings, white walls and simple
furniture.

It's modelled after safe-injection sites in Frankfurt, Germany, and
Sydney, Australia, and was built with the help of community activists
on the drug issue like Dean Wilson, Ann Livingston, and Thia Walter.
The $30,000 cost of the renovations was covered by donations and
volunteer work.

At the moment, only the injection site has been built on the ground
floor, but Evans and Townsend say they hope to expand into nearby
vacant space to provide more sophisticated counselling services and to
create a detox facility and residence on the floor above.

The property is owned by a Korean man, a longtime landlord in the
Downtown Eastside, who is enthusiastic about what Evans and Townsend
have already done to improve the street.

The Portland Hotel Society already manages two provincial government
buildings on either end of the block, the Sunrise and the Washington
hotels. The Sunrise, a former major drug market and police problem,
now boasts flower boxes on the windows, Co-op Radio, and a cafe on the
ground floor that is used by both the retired loggers and miners of
the old Downtown Eastside and the newer residents.

The society has a reputation for running well-managed operations, in
spite of dealing with some of the most challenging people in the
Downtown Eastside, but without being heavy-handed or rule-bound.

Evans and others interested in improving health conditions for drug
users in the community, who have formed a separate non-profit called
Health Quest, sent in a letter of intent to the Vancouver Coastal
Health Authority Friday notifying them of the site and asking to be
included in the proposal that the authority is writing to get
federal-government approval to operate the country's first official
safe-injection site.

They will be publicly announcing the site's existence
today.

The health authority has been scrambling to get a proposal together
since Vancouver residents overwhelmingly voted for a mayoral candidate
and a party that promised to bring in safe-injection sites and other
new strategies to combat the effects of drug addiction to the Downtown
Eastside.

Provincial, city and health board staff have been working on a plan
for a proposal with three or four sites in the city that would serve
different populations and different volumes of users.

However, there haven't been any sites identified until
now.

Mayor Larry Campbell had said he wanted a site open by Jan. 1 and
then, when it proved impossible to write a proposal and get federal
approval in that short a time, by March 1. The health authority is now
hoping to have a proposal in to the federal government by
mid-February. With the federal government's promised 60-day turnaround
time, that could mean a site could open by mid-April if one was ready
and waiting.

Campbell was cautiously optimistic Monday about the news that a site
is ready to go.

"It's a start. I'm happy with it. It's a good place to start it in,"
said Campbell. He said the people involved from the Portland Hotel
Society are a good group to get a project like that going.

"It's a group within the neighbourhood that has tremendous trust. They
work well with others."

As well, he said, it's in an ideal location.

"It's where our sickest people are."

However, he said it's not his decision whether the site on East
Hastings becomes part of the proposal, saying it's up to the health
authority to decide if it meets all the requirements. He also said it
has to comply with the city's zoning bylaws.

Health authority spokesman Clay Adams said Monday the authority has to
evaluate the Health Quest proposal, along with one it received Friday
from a group in the Downtown South area that doesn't currently have a
site identified.

But he also said the Health Quest site has a number of obvious
benefits, since it's located close to target users and would be
operated by a group well known in the Downtown Eastside.

Those working on the proposal have been trying to identify several
sites to include in the proposal that would serve different purposes.
One of them has to be in the centre of the drug market in the Downtown
Eastside. Ideally, a safe-injection site there would draw the people
who inject drugs in the alleys, primarily in the 100-block and
unit-block of East Hastings, into a private facility. The authority
would also like to see one site that is attached to a large,
comprehensive centre that includes treatment, counselling, medical
care and a host of other services to deal with drug addiction.

There has been speculation that, although the authority wants to open
several sites eventually, it will go with one to start with.

Still up in the air is how any of the sites will be paid
for.

Townsend estimated it would cost $300,000 to $800,000 a year to staff
the site his group built, depending on how many hours a day it was
open. So far, neither the province nor the federal government has
publicly committed money.

However, Campbell said Premier Gordon Campbell has assured him that
there is $10 million waiting in provincial money if the federal
government will match that.

He is pushing to get that commitment, not just for safe-injection
sites, but for the detox and treatment improvements that are
desperately need.

Health advocates and people like Larry Campbell, in his role as
coroner, have been pushing for better ways to deal with drug addiction
because of the province's exceptionally high level of overdose deaths
and HIV and Hepatitis C infection.

Townsend said $800,000 to operate a safe-injection site might seem
like a lot of money, but it's very little compared to the cost of a
life or of treating someone with HIV.