St. Catharines city council is looking to take a more targeted approach to handling the opioid crisis. The first step, putting more resources into the downtown core.

An overdose hot spot map provided by Niagara EMS indicates downtown St. Catharines is one of the hardest hit in the entire region. In particular on Queenston street, which is also why the Positive Living Niagara building is located here.

Positive Living Niagara, which distributes clean needles and Nalaxone kits has been approved as the location for the region’s first supervised injection site.

The group of councillors would focus specifically on challenges in the city’s core and report its findings at the network’s regular meetings.

Last year Niagara paramedics responded to 520 suspected opioid overdoses.