Concerns over proposed Strathcona overdose prevention site

Site of "Get Your Drugs Tested" at 880 East Hastings Street, Vancouver. (Submitted)

“Get Your Drugs Tested” on East Hastings Street in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood is looking to formally change its designated use into an overdose prevention site (OPS).

The municipal government is currently in the process of considering a development permit application to change uses at 880 East Hastings Street — located near the southwest corner of the intersection of Campbell Avenue and East Hastings Street — from the existing “Retail” designation to a “Social Service Centre,” specifically for an OPS.

The proposed hours of operation are 8 am to 10 pm, seven days a week.

Dori Dempster, the executive director of the Vancouver Dispensary Society, told Daily Hive Urbanized this location has functioned as an OPS since 2019 when its nearby dispensary was closed by the City under court order. There was a drug-checking machine that could be put to use but needed a new location, so the team opened 880 East Hastings Street the next day as a drug-checking service.

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“Nothing is changing except we may be granted a business license through this process. We are hoping to expand hours in the near future and are hoping to offer a mobile van, but everything will remain the same,” said Dempster, suggesting such a designation would formalize the existing uses.

The existing operations of “Get Your Drugs Tested” is funded by the profits of The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary and donations.

In an email to Daily Hive Urbanized, the City of Vancouver says the application permits interior alterations and the change of use, and there is “nothing in the application submission that would suggest this space will be operated as a witnessed consumption site,” like the other existing OPS facilities closer to the core of the Downtown Eastside.

The City adds that the process of notifying area residents and businesses of the application’s consideration began on February 9, and public consultation through an online survey is open through February 27. The application was submitted on November 2, 2022.

However, area residents assert public consultation has been lacklustre, according to Mike Rhone with the Strathcona Residents Association (SRA).

“We were offered very little time to get community feedback and we would like to request a meeting with representatives from the Strathcona Residents Association and the Strathcona Business Improvement Association,” reads an open letter from the SRA circulating amongst residents.

Rhone told Daily Hive Urbanized City staff agreed to a meeting a week after the end of the formal public consultation window.

He says residents of the Stamps Place, a seniors and family social housing complex at the intersection to the east, were not aware of the application, and he questions whether there has been meaningful engagement with the residents of other similar buildings.

880 east hastings street vancouver ops 1

Proposed location of the OPS designation for “Get Your Drugs Tested” site at 880 East Hastings Street (right) and its close proximity to the childcare facility at RayCam Co-operative Centre (left). (Submitted)

The proposed OPS designation for “Get Your Drugs Tested” at 880 East Hastings Street and surrounding points of interest. (Submitted)

While the applicant and City have said there are currently no plans to allow on-site opioid consumption, Rhone suggests he wants guarantees to ensure this is not possible in the future as an expansion of the operations.

He points to the major public disorder and crime challenges stemming from the Yaletown OPS ever since it was approved in 2020, despite promises by the operators and the City that there would be adequate measures to keep the area orderly.

The extended operating hours of the Yaletown OPS, like what is being proposed in this application, have led to people staying and setting up outside the location at the intersection of Seymour and Helmcken streets around the clock.

Even if this were a non-consumption location, he says, there is a risk that the distribution of harm reduction supplies will greatly increase public consumption and the litter of needles and/or other harm reduction supplies. Rhone notes there was a significant increase in discarded needles in the neighbourhood when an OPS tent was set up during the previous Strathcona Park encampment.

Additionally, the proposed location is 30 metres from the ground-level childcare facility of the Ray-Cam Cooperative Centre, where there is an outdoor playground fronting Campbell Avenue.

“It appears there has been little to no effort to engage with those most vulnerable to additional burden. A low-income daycare and playground is next door but one to this site,” Rhone told Daily Hive Urbanized in an email, noting that the SRA supports the continued use of the location as a drug testing service.

“The community isn’t outright fighting the application, the concern is that it’s being snuck in without any attempt to take input.”

Vincent Kwan, the executive director of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association, echoed the same concerns of area residents.

“The concern is about how a potential Overdose Prevention Site operation does not fit the area that is such close proximity to a community centre, childcare centre, non-profit organizations that serve family and children primarily,” Kwan told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“Overdose prevention as a service is not the debate here, but we would be completely irresponsible if we do not see the reality of many of the current operating OPS and their impact on the neighbouring area. Despite the efforts of OPS operators, the reality is that operators are not always equipped and well supported enough to deal with the uptick in thefts, violence, and countless other conflicts that converge to OPS operations and spilling out onto the street.”

Based on his engagement with many businesses and residents over the matter, he says, there is significant concern over the implications and the short timeline and notice for public consultation.

Kwan adds that instead of the OPS designation approval, the existing operation of the drug testing site should be maintained and improved as a “laboratory-type operation with a robust and consistent standard requirement to ensure the health and safety of people inside and outside of the site due to the services provided.”

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