Keeping Lowertown Safe and Clean Every Day!
By Margot Geduld
Living in Lowertown has many advantages–being within walking distance of great restaurants, bars, nightclubs and shops–but it also has its share of potentially unsavoury and unhealthy elements which come from debris associated with drug use or the sex trade. Fortunately, Needle Hunters are dedicated to tracking down and collecting this paraphernalia on a daily basis to help ensure our streets and parks are healthy and safe.
The Needle Hunters program, funded by the City of Ottawa and run by Causeway Work Centre, aims to find and retrieve improperly discarded needles, drug paraphernalia and items of the sex trade. You have probably noticed these orange- and yellow-vested superheroes of the needle-hunting trade in our streets and parks, searching out this debris and carefully gathering it with their special equipment for safe disposal. In Lowertown, they work 7 days a week, 363 days a year to keep our streets and parks safe; their only days off are Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
throughout the year (City of Ottawa 2018)
When you notice these men and women, keep in mind that not only are they helping us keep our neighbourhood safe, but they are also being helped themselves. This is because Causeway Work Centre, a beacon of community support in Ottawa, welcomes men and women who may be struggling with finding or keeping employment due to any number of issues such as mental-health concerns or previous substance=abuse issues. Causeway, on behalf of the City of Ottawa, carefully trains them to take on this heroic charge and in turn gives them meaningful employment.
helping to keep our streets and parks healthy and safe.
The Needle Hunters themselves confirm that this program helps them feel empowered as part of a valued team and gives them a sense of accomplishment by being steadily employed. Stephen Roberts has been a Needle Hunter for five years, and while he says the regular income helps supplement his disability payments, one of the main reasons he continues to go out hunting every day is that he find it very rewarding. “I see first-hand the impact it makes and I get thanked by perfect strangers … I’m making a difference and that makes the job worthwhile.”
Margot Geduld recently moved to Lowertown and is grateful every day to see the heroic Needle Hunters doing their job, so she knows she can walk her dog through the park safely or watch children play in the grass without fear. Margot also sits on the Board of Directors of Causeway Work Centre.