Lack of affordable housing a big driver of overdose crisis: Saskatoon mayor

Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block on Tuesday identified the lack of affordable housing as one of the biggest reasons for the current overdose crisis in the city.

Block made her remarks at a press conference where a number of official agency representatives provided an update on their responses to the crisis.

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Saskatoon Fire Department (SFD) said it has responded to 733 overdose incidents or suspected opioid poisonings since the beginning of this year, whereas at the same time last year they had only dealt with 287.

There have been 435 overdose incidents in March so far, and Saskatchewan Coroner’s Service says preliminary data shows there have been nine deaths that are suspected to be overdose related since March 1.

650 CKOM has reached out to SFD asking where these overdoses occurred.

Saskatoon Fire Department overdose responses

Saskatoon Mayor Cynthia Block at her desk at Saskatoon City Hall. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

‘We need a place for people to go at all times’

“Evidence is clear that for all of the issues around mental health, addiction and trauma, there is really only one reason why people are unhoused in our community, and that’s because they can’t afford a home,” Block told reporters, adding that solutions for affordable housing will take time.

“Over the past six months, city council has approved some 256 new affordable housing spaces … 70 per cent of which will have wraparound supports.

“We need a place for people to go at all times. With the library shutting down, with the other community support agencies that are no longer able to provide that service, it makes it even more important that we are working together as a team,” Block said.

“We need to find out what is the proper resourcing so that we can make sure not only that people have safe places to be but just even a place to be — that is foundational to who we are as humans.”

Prairie Harm Reduction appeal for help being reviewed

Saskatoon’s supervised consumption site Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) has temporarily shut its doors until March 31, citing staff stress, burnout, and trauma over the number of overdoses in the last several weeks.

James Turner, Assistant Deputy Minister at Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, told reporters the ministry is reviewing the request for additional help from PHR, which was left out of Saskatchewan’s budget this year.

Executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction, Kayla DeMong, has said the organization is “drowning” with minimal resources amid the crisis.

Pamela Goulden-McLeod, Saskatoon’s Director of Emergency Services, told 650 CKOM last week that there’s no alternative location for users to go if the safe consumption site is closed, and that’s going to have a significant impact on emergency services.

“We have reached out to the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) and requested supports, and we’re working with them on that right now.”

While the services at PHR can’t be replaced in the short term, Goulden-McLeod said they’re trying to figure out if and how they can mitigate what she called the “cascading impacts” from the facility’s temporary closure.

That likely means police, fire, and ambulance staff will need to adjust their responses or prepare for the impact as well.

“So, they’re all working on their own internal processes there, and then it’s looking at ‘is there a way we can provide additional supports to get that service (PHR) back up and running again,’ and that’s what we’re currently working with the province on,” she explained.

Goulden-McLeod said PHR is a critical service that’s needed with the surge in drug overdoses.

PEOC has been in Saskatoon “enhancing the coordination between government ministries and organizations that respond to overdoses” since March 12.

Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency oversees PEOC and President Marlo Pritchard said at Tuesday’s news conference the centre has been providing support to municipal and emergency staff, advertising a drug alert system and distributing naloxone kits.

He said it had also been increasing resources to the fire department, including access to four paramedics, as well as adding overdose outreach teams.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk and Lara Fominoff.

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