Is Chinatown safer without a supervised consumption site? Neighbours say no [Video]

When Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced last August a plan to shut down 10 supervised drug consumption sites, she singled out the one in Ottawa’s Chinatown for special attention.

Jones said violent crime was way up in the area around the Somerset West Community Health Centre, adding she didn’t want Ontario’s neighbourhoods to be “just a place for people to use drugs.”

But in the two months since that supervised consumption site closed down, many neighbours say they now feel less safe as drug use has moved out of the facility and into the open.

Catherine Caldwell lives about two blocks away on Spruce Street. She said she didn’t feel unsafe before the closure, but this spring feels worse than ever. Neighbours are finding more drug paraphernalia on their property, their backyards are getting …