Toronto homeless shelters that have been allowing occupants to use street drugs in a supervised internal facility will face the same restrictions as public supervised consumption sites, the province has confirmed — a decision one shelter executive fears will push people to use substances in nearby public spaces instead and risks leaving them to overdose without aid.
The shelter-based programs, which are restricted to occupants and not available for walk-in users, were rolled out at a handful of shelters and respites in recent years in an effort to combat a surge of overdoses and deaths across the system. Two sites — Seaton House in Moss Park and a Homes First site near the Harbourfront — are within 200 metres of a school or daycare, the radius in which the province intends to bar supervised consumption activity.