Lovely Ahrens Street shouldn’t shun drug addicts

Downtown Kitchener is for everyone. That’s a big part of its appeal.

The tired vagrant, resting in the cool lobby of City Hall, belongs there just as much as the mayor does.

The upscale coffee shops and inventive restaurants are there for people with money, and the soup kitchen is there for people without money.

There’s the whimsical appeal of The Museum, from which bubbles blew into the humid air Friday afternoon, and there’s the community centre a few blocks away, where sensible seniors come for exercise classes.

There’s the delicate chiming of church bells on the breeze, and the revving of car engines on King Street.

There are the elegant mansions, and the shelters for homeless people.

It works, because everyone is welcome. Including people who are addicted to illegal drugs.

There’s a lot of worry about so-called supervised consumption sites, of which there are 16 in Canada. Two more are proposed for Kitchener and Cambridge.

These centres allow people to consume their illegal drugs under medical supervision. In this way, if the product is laced with deadly fentanyl or otherwise tainted, they can get the treatment they need right away, instead of dying alone.

Overdose deaths are a huge problem in Waterloo Region, where 85 people died last year.

Our local death rate from overdose is higher than last year’s provincial average, which recorded 8.9 people dying for every 100,000 persons. Locally, the number is 15.5 deaths for every 100,000 people.

Addictions are terribly hard to overcome, but when a person is ready, these centres can also direct him or her to counselling and other strategies that can turn a life around.

Some potential neighbours are pushing back. Cambridge council recently passed a law preventing a supervised consumption site from opening in its core.

And at a meeting earlier this week, some residents near a proposed site near Water and Victoria streets expressed fears of declining property values and increased crime.

“Nobody is going to buy a house with a dope house nearby,” said John Davis of Ahrens Street.

There are a few things to say about that. First: of course people will want to buy a home on tree-lined Ahrens Street, which offers one of the loveliest prospects in the city, and leads to nearby cultural gems like Kitchener Public Library and Centre in the Square.

Second: if properly run, the centre won’t be a “dope house.” There’s cause for optimism. The owner is The Working Centre with a long history of helping the most vulnerable. It plans to partner with Sanguen Health Centre, which has a good track record operating other centres.

Third: if government funding is available, the centre will open whether you like it or not. The Water Street site is the preferred place because it’s near the soup kitchen, and won’t need a zone change.

The biggest hurdle may be funds. Newly elected Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford has said he’s against these kinds of centres.

Regional Chair Ken Seiling wrote to Ford on June 29, asking what to expect. “This is an urgent issue,” Seiling wrote, “one that sees lives at risk.”

He has not yet received a response. But don’t rule out the willingness of Waterloo Region to make it happen from local taxes.

With its graceful historic homes and pretty Hibner Park, Ahrens Street is part of a richly diverse city core where there’s room for everyone.

It can’t seal itself off. It shouldn’t even try.