Prairie Harm Reduction plans to cut hours amid funding strain

Keeping the doors open at Prairie Harm Reduction has been an uphill battle.

Starting on May 1, the supervised consumption site and drop-in centre will not be able to keep its doors open past 4 p.m. Kayla DeMong, the organization’s executive director, pointed to a lack of resources and funding as reasons for the decision.

“We have, in the last few months, seen an increase in demand by over 200 individuals accessing services, which requires us to have a lot more staff on site,” DeMong said.

“The reality is, with hundreds more people needing services, our building and our staff currently cannot manage,” she said, noting the organization sometimes sees up to 80 visitors at a time.

DeMong said that the facility has seen a steady increase of overdoses in the evening hours, and staff members and paramedics have attended to multiple overdoses outside of the building.

“With hundreds of more people needing services, our building and our staff currently cannot manage,” executive director Kayla DeMong explained. (Mia Holowaychuk/650 CKOM)

In the past couple of years, the facility’s drop-in centre and supervised consumption site have been open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.

DeMong said Prairie Harm Reduction is the only organization of its kind in the community and has the only public washroom available to many of its clients.

“This has been an incredibly difficult decision, because we know as of May 1 when the doors lock at 4 p.m., there is nowhere for people to go,” she said.

The executive director noted that the facility receives no provincial funding and relies solely on donations to operate.

DeMong became emotional as she spoke to reporters on Tuesday, saying her goal is to keep looking for funding.

“We will continue to fundraise. We will continue to reach out wherever we can to whomever we can to find money, like we do every year,” she said.

“At this time, we have a prospective $65,000 to operate this year.”

To meet the demand she’s seeing in Saskatoon, DeMong said the facility would need around $450,000 to keep its doors open year round.

In a previous interview with 650 CKOM, DeMong said Prairie Harm Reduction needed $200,000 in annual funding, and wanted to see that funding included in the provincial budget.

“It is absolutely shocking that our province has made decisions without considering our people that are living on our streets,” DeMong said, adding she feels it’s the province’s responsibility to provide support for the most vulnerable.

Although the supervised consumption site was again left out of this year’s budget, the provincial government said the health and social services ministries provide combined funding of over $2.2 million for Prairie Harm Reduction. That funding provides for an intensive in-home support program for at-risk families, outreach and peer support programming, along with a supportive living program for at-risk individuals in Saskatoon.

Tim McLeod, Saskatchewan’s minister for mental health and addictions, has said the government will not fund safe consumption spaces, and has instead invested money in the province’s naloxone program and overdose outreach teams.

“Our focus is on the recovery and the treatment of individuals that are battling addiction,” the minister said.

The provincial budget – which was tabled last month – included a record $574 million investment in mental health and addictions, which included a mental health and addictions action plan providing $6.2 million for 150 more addictions treatment spaces.