Surge in homelessness and public drug use a result of Sask. government policy: Prairie Harm Reduction

Saskatoon’s Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR) says a staff member arrived to work on Thursday morning to find someone at its doorstep, unresponsive from a suspected drug overdose.

“The heartbreak is indescribable, especially knowing this could have been prevented if our doors had been open and our paramedics had been onsite,” said Kayla DeMong, executive director of PHR, which provides support services to drug users and those struggling with homelessness, and runs Saskatchewan’s first safe consumption site.

DeMong says her organization often finds itself at the centre of political debate, struggling under the constant threat of closure, as those looking to explain the surge in homelessness, public drug use and overdoses find PHR to be an easy scapegoat.

If you think you’re seeing more homelessness and public drug use than ever — you are. But DeMong says these conditions are a consequence of public policy, including changes to Saskatchewan’s social assistance benefits that made it harder for recipients to get their rent paid, and a crumbling, underfunded health care system.

“I think the hardest thing is that, especially around election time, decisions are made, and promises are made just for votes. They’re not actually made in the best interest of everyone in the community,” DeMong told CTV News on Monday.

• Get the CTV News app for Saskatchewan breaking news alerts and top stories 

Now, as the politically conservative-leaning parties — in Saskatchewan and across the country — return to the idea of abstinence, or recovery-based addiction care, DeMong says it’s the province’s most vulnerable, many of whom are residential school survivors, who will suffer the most under the new regime.

“They’re selling a picture and promises to people who see, you know, promises of treatment and think, ‘OK, that’ll solve it all’ … there is no plan for the people living on our streets, and it’s become a very easy target for PHR to be blamed for all of it,” she said.

“If you are living on the streets, going to treatment is not a realistic thing because you’d be returning to the streets.”

DeMong says it’s easy to blame the humanitarian crises in Saskatchewan’s cities on the individual choices of those now living on the streets and using drugs to cope with their dangerous new reality, but focusing on the individual people, or the organizations trying to help them, allows the government to avoid explaining why the healthcare system is in crisis; why the education system is in crisis.

CTV News contacted the province to comment on its changes to the Saskatchewan Income Support program and its recovery-based approach to addiction care, and is awaiting a response.

Since the province will not fund harm reduction services, as a rule, DeMong says PHR has to rely on charitable donations to keep the doors open at its consumption site, and drug users in the neighbourhood risk death every day due to the toxic illicit drug supply.

“The individual found [Thursday] had nowhere safe to go in the cold and nowhere safe to use,” DeMong wrote in a statement on Friday.

The staff who found them administered first aid, and DeMong says paramedics were able to get the person’s heart beating again, but they remained unconscious when they were removed from the scene by paramedics.

“We are deeply grateful to the paramedics who responded to help them. It’s hard to understand how those in power allow this to happen when they have the ability to keep these services open and save lives.”

On Monday afternoon, DeMong told CTV News PHR got word the individual had woken up, but said they didn’t have any further details about the person’s condition.