Supervised Drug Consumption Site leaving Downtown London this month

'Temporary' was never meant to last four years.

Carepoint Consumption, Treatment, and Harm Reduction Services is leaving its temporary location at 186 King Street for a construction-style trailer in the parking lot of its permanent home at 446 York Street across from Mission Services.

"The trailer is a temporary step to help us financially get to where we need to go," explains Sonja Burke with Regional HIV/AIDS Connection.

Since February 2018, the agency has provided supervised drug consumption and related 'wrap-around' services from the rear entrance of its downtown headquarters.

The federal government authorized the London’s first facility as a means to curb the number of overdoses caused by street drugs.

The soon-to-be renovated 12' x 60' trailer will be slightly larger than the current space on King Street.

It will offer 12 hour service each day (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.).

Burke says a combination of factors is motivating moving out of the downtown including: nearby construction, a need to get clients accustomed to the new location, and finances.

"It’s not viable for us to stay at 186 King any longer with the expenses of retrofitting the 446 permanent site," she adds.

Burke is unsure how long services will be offered in the trailer before moving into the permanent bricks and mortar building on the property, but renovations inside the former music shop recently got underway.

"It’s a constant worry for us," says Denise Krogman who operates a family-owned car dealership next door.

Krogman says nighttime security concerns have been heightened by the trailer’s arrival.

She says the final design for the permanent building has never been shared with neighbours.

"What we were hoping for is an actual step forward," Krogman tells CTV News. "So people could actually have beds and a place to stay overnight rather than just using (drugs) and going back onto York Street."

She says neighbours only learned of the temporary trailer late last month.

Carepoint has offered services from its temporary location at 186 King St. Since (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London)

"It’s just like they decided to do it and they had no concern for anybody in the neighbourhood," she asserts.

However, Burke says Carepoint will bring the same tools and techniques developed downtown to address neighbour concerns on York including fencing, needle collection, and security.

"We pretty much have everything in place that we can do to make sure it’s a successful operation in the neighbourhood."

The trailer will be renovated and operating before the lease at 186 King ends on July 1.