[Music] we're talking about people dying in dumpsters we're following breaking news out of Ontario the city of Belleville has declared a state of emergency we lost four people in 40 days to life on the streets I thought you were dead I thought you were dead an animal tranquilizer and it's killing us all chaos chaos destruction and lack of Law and Order the city is dealing with an overdose crisis last Saturday I had to call 911 okay go find an address now cuz someone was OD out back the mayor says that the city's emergency services and
Health Care system are close to a breaking point I'm walking by people smoking fentanyl every day and it's just nonchalant people nodding off nearing death and you know it's just a another stroll in the park at least weeks how did a small town in Ontario make National headlines my producer Ryan and I we wanted to know and so we drove to Belleville to meet up with the people witnessing it firsthand like in November it was very much a similar situation with a lot more people going down than there ever was now we just got to
Belleville and the mayor is about to have a press conference where we're hoping to find out the latest on the emergency situation in this city police say they've intercepted some drugs the majority of those drugs were coming from the GTA belleville's mayor wants to open a new Center but we need a lot more money he wants residents to help pay for it and that's adding to their frustrations it's aimed at the people running the center I interviewed 90 people up and down the street 89 of them were so frustrated and angry because you are allowing
that disaster to happen outside the church okay how can we keep our businesses running a good you know that good question's been going on for two years that's not acceptable anymore this is Belleville Ontario in a state of emergency and this is the epicenter of the overdose crisis couple weeks ago on this block in the span of about an hour a bunch of people started to collapse it's a city at a Breaking Point and we wanted to find out how it got so bad that's Jennifer Cormier JJ she agrees to show us around she's the
head of the John Howard Society runs the dropin center she's taking care of a lot of people um you okay take a couple deep breaths for me okay okay Wayne his lips were blue earlier okay so when the drop in initially was opened it was for 15 individuals who needed to be off the street because of the uh provincial rules and that's grown now to 200 so we see at an average of 108 to 115 Unique Individuals every day the city says the solution is is moving all of this across town to alhamra square run
Services 24 hours a day and boost JJ's Staffing but that plan is still about a year away and some residents they want this all of it gone if we were to close up the drop in today and say we're going to wait until one alhamra is open um eight months to a year down the road from what the mayor was right8 months to a year these individuals are going to end up in people's back yards we get the sense that there's nowhere else to go um I've been homeless for 6 years and before these guys
open we had nothing nowhere to go and get banned from everywhere and once it's open it's just like home like during the day it keeps us warm and save last couple of weeks have been a wakeup call people tell us the violence it's gotten worse they've had to hire security guards I'm prepared for my job I prepare I know that I'm going to potentially run into an overdose or two but to have six in less than 5 minutes was frightening and they weren't responsive and it just it was really overwhelming we keep hearing the drugs
are changing animal tranquilizers benzo diazines they're not the drugs that people were used to people are just seeing it because it's here on the streets but you've been living it for much longer how do you understand what's happening right now it started four years ago this just didn't start recently for any of us this is backfired and bit every single one of us everybody we love and know is dead not everybody is a statistic we um are not pieces of garbage we are a part of the community it is us that is that we are
the ones that are are being killed off by this drug a month and a half ago I OS and between the staff here and a couple of the family Big Brothers here the CPR that they had to do was extensive because of the trank it absolutely put me out to the point that they didn't know what to do so in order to save me it not only took two different Narcan injections and a nasal it took extensive CPR her lips were purple her cheeks were purple her nose was purple I flipped I flipped her over
and I thought I thought you were I thought you were dead I know and it takes longer to bring them back because it's a different drug so it like we she died like three times everyone we talked to here told us they need a safe place to call home but they also tell us if they can't kick fentel first they're not going to be able to keep their place you're talking about the cost of housing is just out of the world and then you're talking about all those other systems that have broken down and there's
no resources so where where do they go for help and and how do they get it we're family we're family here you know I walk hardest part for me every day is shutting that door so if this is your family and your family's on the streets when you do get housing how difficult is it to move on because in a sense it's like from what you've been telling me I'm leaving them here to to die housing it's supposed to be the solution but for the people who live on the streets they see that as an
impossible choice between shelter and the family that they've come to know on the streets but for the people who live and work downtown they say it's a situation that just can't go on okay so this is okay we've been here for 16 years remember the residents who were angry with JJ and the state of Bridge Street we wanted to understand where that frustration was coming from part of our challenges are we have just like a little Community tip pot people will come in they will uh steal the money particular individual that I have on video
she's been in here five times she goes right over to my customers goes into their pockets and takes their money and I I don't have we don't have the budget to hire extra people to to stop that last Saturday I had to call 911 at 5:30 cuz someone was OD noteb back and you know I I feel have compassion for that but it's very very challenging when you're trying to run a business over to the right here used to be our stairs we had a a man and a wife living there um and they for
how long for they were there for 2 weeks they just literally wouldn't leave because I had started giving them food there's no one in this community that doesn't want to help but it's at a level that it's so difficult and we are enabling it we met a lot of other people downtown they wanted us to know what's been happening outside their door and then they showed us this go find an address now I've already called somebody I'm on the phone with them now what's been the impact on this town from from where you're standing chaos
chaos destruction and lack of Law and Order smashed Windows people defecating uh you can say homeless but I think a lot of that is uh addiction uh problems uh urinating anywhere uh casting garbage everywhere just a lack of respect for a community that feeds them what seems to be happening here here that's really affecting all of us is the drug culture and the drug dealing and the theft that happens with that I personally feel that the one program that we have up the street is kind of broken because it's really overflowing down into the businesses
and it's and it's really affecting their livelihood My worry is that um if it doesn't change for the better uh people are really going to burn out and our community will suffer okay but let's take a step back here for a second because to be clear this issue is really concentrated on a few blocks of downtown in a small city of about 50,000 people that can feel like a lot but not everyone is at the end of their rope and people went out of their way to tell us that for me the general feeling is
uh a lot of sympathy really I mean this is part of our community this is these are people that are loved ones to um lots of you know friends and family other employees other businesses that we have these are all you know known people and we I don't feel that um we're really doing enough back on Bridge Street some people tell us this is their Hometown and they've lost a lot of people that last round of overdoses it took Sarah's husband Channing they found him in a dumpster in four years this started with my dad
and ended with my husband my mother died two weeks before him final overdose at 60 years old Channing was only 38 he just turned 38 that's a thread we keep hearing loss and a lack of support I me myself I always wanted to be a a family man I had that dream and and we were introduced to certain drugs and it went to hell like um for me to get clean and stay clean I need a stable home being out here it's just massive depression all the time you get stuck in that rut and you
finally give up like they pretty much given up there has to be housing that's affordable to begin with and supported and so I think until that happens you're just creating a revolving door this is the epitomy of a revolving door I I talk to people about the bail system and they go well what do you mean they let hardcore drug dealers out that have guns on them Constable Aaron Crawford we've been wanting to talk to him since we got here and just before we need to head back he gets the green light to go on
camera how do you describe What's Happening Here Right Now Ville um I would say that this is the Crux of um poor policy and poor decision um all come to a head all at the same time um you have uh a legal system uh that's incredibly soft on crime and on criminals you have a mental health system that's quite frankly failing uh taxpaying and non-t taxpaying citizens here in Ontario and um things are kind of at their breaking point this is the result you have people that are unmedicated unwell and they're medicating themselves with drugs
on the street uh fentanyl uh they're using fentanyl because they don't want to feel anymore they're defeated he tells us he's been watching things go from bad to worse knows most people by name either because he's tried to save them or because he's arrested them over and over again I mean if I charge someone for theft or mischief they go to the courthouse they get released because they're trying to fund their addiction if I take them to the hospital they don't get held because they're in a drug induced psychosis it just seems that there's just
nowhere for these people to go we ask him about those concerns that the residents brought up about the thefts the break-ins the vandalism it's either I bring them to court get them charged or charge them and they're not had held accountable for the criminal act that they're doing um and again I think it's because of out of reasons of compassion um but then they're also not being uh institutionalized I could introduce you to a couple people probably at 60 Bridge who would ramble on and make no sense would not be able to have a full-fledged
conversation like you or I are having right now and that's because of their mental health issues and for me not to be able to bring someone to a place that can actually look after that person CU right now that type of a person cannot look after themselves and they are being left on the street that is frustrating picking up the same people for the same crimes day after day he says he tries to get them help instead of laying charges but there is no help anywhere so after a few arrests eventually it comes to head
where we're charging people for the crimes that they're committing smashing Windows thefts um all the things that probably you're hearing are affecting the downtown area and we're sending them to the courts and the courts are essentially saying this person may be doing these things because they're in a mid in the midst of a mental health crisis and that would bring us to our bail system uh so our bail system um people are getting released left right and center for the same crimes over and over and over again has the system failed you your city I
think the systems failed a lot of communities not just bille just look at the last two weeks I mean we're talking about people dying in dumpsters we're talking about people that are dying on the front of a sidewalk uh that they've been released to um I just shake my head at at people who I just shake my head and kind of go why H how do the people that are in charge not see that they're the ones causing some of this so we head back to Bridge Street right behind the church we're starting to see
this building in a whole new light everyone's concerned no one's got an answer my hope is that we as a community can collectively come together and say okay what can we do that works for everyone and you know I understand I'm I'm a mother I have a child I understand that mindset of not necessarily wanting your child to see this but the harsh reality is this is real it's real these people are real and this isn't just a Beville issue this is Countrywide we are seeing it everywhere the states everywhere and and you know so
there's obviously there's more to it than just a church before we leave town we have to see the sight of this new center and this is it underfunded and a long ways away from being of any help it's been the end of a full two days here in Belleville and we've spoken to everyone who would speak to us everyone's got a different idea of what a solution looks like but like this one they're all longterm the one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the systems that were supposed to be in place to
prevent this from happening they failed and it's the people who live here who are paying the price
