A Safer Downtown for All: Including People Who Use Drugs in the Solutions to Social Disorder

Background

As cities across Canada struggle to address the dual toxic drug and affordable housing crises, downtown neighbourhoods are experiencing higher than ever issues of social disorder.  Public discourse on community safety has largely centred around the needs and concerns of housed citizens and local businesses where identified solutions (more security, police, disruption of local drug scenes) often decrease the safety of people who use drugs.  Despite this, and despite people who use drugs being more likely to experience victimization than any other stakeholder, the safey needs and perspectives of people who use drugs rarely enter the discussion

Methods

We utilized a participatory action research framework to survey people who use drugs about their perceptions of safety along with short, medium and long term solutions to meet their needs.  We conducted focus groups to engage the community of people who use drugs in developing and implementing a solution to social disorder in a downtown neighbourhood.

Results

People who use drugs expressed the same concerns regarding safety as other neighbourhood stakeholders. They identified several pragmatic strategies that could be implemented at the organizational or local planning level.  They recognized that their community had deteriorated significantly due to the toxic drug crisis, exacerbated by the affordable housing crisis and expressed a positive desire to be part of the solution of restoring the positive aspects of street culture to address social disorder issues and to restore balance to the local neighbourhood.  

We developed a "Block Leader" engagement project that addressed immediate safety needs of people who use drugs and supported the development of community leadership to model the prosocial behaviours that existed prior to the dual crises.

Conclusions

Any sustainable solution to concerns regarding social disorder in a neighbourhood must include the participation of all stakeholders, including people who use drugs.   Investment in community engagement and leadership develop holds significant promise in addressing all stakeholder safety needs and restoring neighbourhood balance.