A group of about 70 people advocating for more help against homelessness and addictions issues were at the feet of city hall on Monday afternoon, just as city council was to hold a vote relating to a new multi-million-dollar plaza in Sault Ste. Marie’s downtown.
Donna DeSimon, Addictions and Mental Health Advocates (AAMHA) founder, told SooToday the plan to spend upward of $8 million on the new plaza is not the main problem facing the city, but just the most recent symptom of inaction by all levels of government.
She wonders why the project is a priority for council, while affordable housing and treatment facilities are hard to come by in the city.
“We need our councillors to lobby for us, that’s the bottom line,” said DeSimon. “They need to lobby the provincial and federal government for money for Sault Ste. Marie to deal with our addiction and mental health issues.”
“We need help and we need to be heard and after today, hopefully we will be heard,” she added.
People in the crowd called out the planned spending on the plaza while people on the streets of Sault Ste. Marie are seeking help or dying while they wait.
In his remarks to the crowd, community activist Robert Peace said mayor and council need to address the crisis head on.
”We need municipal leadership to declare a crisis and bang on the doors of the province. We need them to publicly recognize and speak to the issues locally — daily,” said Peace.
The people on the streets of Sault Ste. Marie are just the tip of the iceberg, said Peace. There is a number of people who are still working and at home who are finding it difficult to cope and may themselves become homeless or overdose with no local treatment options in sight.
Peace moved to Sault Ste. Marie about a year ago and quickly noticed the people lined up at the methadone clinic across the street from his office.
”I quickly realized that those were the people trying to get help. Those were the ones trapped in a system who were at least trying,” he said.
Peace said he began speaking to some of those people and others who had not yet made a step toward recovery.
"I am not a doctor but I could quickly see that early life trauma lead to mental health issues which often lead to drug use and self medication and drug use often led to worse mental health issues and homelessness,” said Peace.
”I then learned, when someone with tears in their eyes begged me for help... that there was nowhere that I could take them for help. I thought nowhere in our medical system were things set up in such a disjointed way that ensured failure as this,” he said.
He asked the crowd if there should be a declaration of a mental health and addiction crisis in Sault Ste. Marie and was met with a resounding cheer.
”The mess has been left too long and we are at a crossroads,” said Peace. ”We either act now or this city will collapse from the burden that this crisis will bring in the years ahead.”
In her remarks to the crowd, DeSimon said she gets word almost every night that someone else was lost to an overdose. Up until the weekend, said DeSimon, one person died every day over the previous 10 days.
“That doesn’t count how many were saved by NARCAN,” said DeSimon of the prescription nasal spray used to block the effects of opioids.
“How many are we going to lose? I can’t understand what is happening in this city. We are going to wipe out an entire generation.”