Street Health is a non-profit community based agency that strives to improve the health and well-being of homeless and under-housed people in downtown Toronto. We offer physical and mental health programs, as well as supports that improve clients’ ability to access other services. Our work is focused in the neighbourhood around Dundas and Sherbourne Streets, an area with the largest concentration of homeless shelters and drop-in centres in Canada. On an average day, 115 clients come through our doors; we have 60,500 client visits each year.

What is an OPS?

• A safe, hygienic environment for people to inject pre-obtained drugs under the supervision of staff.
• We provide sterile injection supplies, education, overdose prevention and intervention, nursing and other services and referrals.
• A low barrier, lifesaving service to address the opioid crisis which has affected the Dundas/Sherbourne area quite acutely.

  Why an OPS at  Street Health?

• Opioid deaths in Ontario have increased by 52% and emergency room visits due to suspected overdose have increased by 72% in the past year.
• Toronto Public Health has identified our neighbourhood as a ‘hot spot’ for overdose.
• We have been delivering harm reduction services in the community for many years
• The service is located in the fully-accessible backyard coach house within our existing space.
• The service has two booths for supervised injection and a small area for post-consumption monitoring.
• The service operates during our current opening hours and is staffed by experienced harm reduction workers with nursing back up.
• Most of the people using the service will be existing clients.

What are the benefits of an OPS?

• Reducing the number of drug overdoses
• Reducing the risk factors leading to infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis
• Enabling access to & Increasing the use of detox and drug treatment services
• Connecting people with other health and social services
• Reducing the number of publicly discarded needles; and
• Reducing the cost of health care services.