This November, Cool Aid Society had the air quality tested at their Crosstown location (formerly the Tally Ho Motel) site on Douglas Street due to some workers and residents experiencing headaches.
The Cool Aid Society helps to house the unhoused in Victoria, with several sites in the city offering care from a harm reduction approach. The former Tally Ho Motel is just one of their many large-capacity sites meant to shelter people and keep them safe.
When the air quality results came back, it revealed that there were traces of fentanyl in the air. This was due to some of the building’s residents smoking the substance inside as well as around its perimeter.
Don McTavish, Director of Housing and Shelters at Cool Aid Society, explained that in a space like Crosstown, being an old building with undesirable air circulation, the stage was set for a “perfect storm” when smoke of any kind is contained in the building.
“It’s an old motel and we operate supportive housing. Technically, we don’t allow smoking in the building, but people do and we try to work with them on it,” McTavish told Victoria Buzz.
There are two smoking areas outside the old motel and he says it’s just an ongoing management issue to have people smoke outside when they need to.
Cool Aid worked hand-in-hand with WorkSafeBC throughout this process to learn how to navigate this issue which is somewhat new.
“Fentanyl is an interesting thing. It’s pretty new as far as [an inhalant] substance to be exposed to in an occupational way,” explained McTavish.
“Up until very recently, there were no standards, in fact, WorkPlace doesn’t actually have a standard for exposure like they would for chlorine or bleach or some other toxic chemical.”
The standards do exist are set extremely low because of the exposure being a new phenomenon, according to McTavish.
Due to the air quality test, Cool Aid has implemented some new measures. These include ways to help with air flow techniques, requiring personnel to wear protective equipment such as respirators, more strict smoking indoors policy with new checks and balances as well as a new fence outside to keep smokers away from the doors and keep outsiders from coming into the closed site.
McTavish along with his colleagues at Cool Aid are now striving to work with other agencies in the Victoria area to share resources and help each other learn from this situation. They are also going to be looking at implementing some air quality at their other sites which may be impacted similarly out of care for their staff and residents.
“This is a new, emerging issue that we’re doing our best with all together,” he said.
Mostly, McTavish says he hopes that this will not increase fear and further stigma around substance-users or unhoused Victorians.
“The last thing our folks need that we’re trying to help is any more stigma or shame on them because they’re just trying to get through their day,” McTavish told Victoria Buzz.
“I hope we can come up with some solutions fairly quickly and get back to focusing on supporting the people we’re trying to support,” he concluded.
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