Some local business owners and social media accounts have raised concerns about work starting at a controversial proposed overdose prevention site (OPS), but Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) maintains that it is not proceeding with it at this time.
A little over a month ago, VCH put the brakes on opening an OPS at 900 Helmcken St., across from one of Vancouver’s busiest hotels, the Sheraton Wall Centre.
When VCH announced this new location on May 5, it prompted quick backlash from Vancouver’s mayor, businesses, business leaders, and residents.
While an OPS is intended to provide supervised consumption, drug checking, and other harm reduction services, Mayor Ken Sim said in a release that it’s a solution that “fails both those who are struggling and the communities around them.”
“We have seen the disastrous impact when OPS sites are introduced without the right planning, oversight, and accountability,” he said.
Three weeks later, on May 27, B.C.’s minister of health, Josie Osborne, announced that VCH “will not proceed with the overdose-prevention site at 900 Helmcken St. at this time, and there is currently no planned date for opening.”
She also said that they are committed to “fully engage with stakeholders and community ahead of any new site opening.”
In the weeks since, some local businesses and social media accounts have pointed out that work has started at 900 Helmcken St.
On June 3, a local business sent an email to the media about landscaping work on the property. More recently, a social media account posted a video of workers bringing boxes into the building.
However, VCH told Daily Hive in an email that they “are not proceeding with an overdose-prevention site at 900 Helmcken St. at this time, and are committed to engaging with stakeholders prior to opening any site in future.”
The health authority said that Raincity, the non-profit that runs the OPS, “assumed responsibility for the lease” on June 1, and they are currently working on maintenance, general improvements and repairs of the site.
Why is it so controversial?
This site was slated as the third location for the Thomus Donaghy OPS (TD OPS).
Its first location was at 1101 Seymour St., which was open from 2021 to 2024. It closed after the municipal government did not renew the lease due to controversy, including complaints of public disorder, strewn garbage and needles, crime and public safety issues, and sidewalk encampments.
It then moved to Howe Street but permanently closed on Jan. 31, 2026, with VCH saying it was at the discretion of the property owner. Since then, they said that only limited and temporary services for its clients have been available.
The VCH has said that overdose prevention sites are “evidence-based harm reduction services that can reduce the risk of death, help connect people to treatment, while also providing an alternative to public drug use.”
Daily Hive has also previously interviewed harm reduction and recovery advocate Guy Felicella, who pointed out that drug users are already in the neighbourhood, with or without the OPS.
He said that people who are opposed to the OPS are complaining about the street disorder and chaos that already exists.
“The site’s not there,” he said. “So, what is it? Is it the chaos and the disorder, and the loitering that you want to address, or is it the supervised consumption site? Because we don’t have a supervised consumption site there.”
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