Sudbury chocolatier closing storefront for a time due to outside drug use as BIA, city work on the issue

A chocolatier says she is closing her storefront in downtown Sudbury, Ont., for a short time because people have been openly using drugs outside her front door.

While she said she doesn't feel unsafe downtown, Tammy Maki added that many of her customers have been uneasy being around people experiencing homelessness and opioid addiction in the downtown core.

She said open drug use downtown has had a negative effect on foot traffic to her business and others.

"The perception is much worse than it actually is, but unfortunately, that perception leads to people not coming here," Maki said.

"And that only lets what's going on outside perpetuate and get larger, so it's like a snowball effect. It makes me really sad."

Maki said she calls Sudbury police several times a day because of open drug use outside her business and more funding is needed for social services to support people struggling with addiction.

"There has to be something else in place," she said.

The Downtown Sudbury Business Improvement Association (BIA) said it's "ramping up" a program to bring more businesses to vacant storefronts in the downtown core.

Through the zero-vacancy program, business owners pay a discounted rate for rent on a rolling 30-day lease.

Jeff MacIntyre, the group's co-chair, said the goal is to bring in more businesses downtown and increase foot traffic from potential customers.

"When you have more people on the street, more eyes on the street, it creates safety," he said.

"We've seen that in downtowns across Ontario."

MacIntyre said having more people frequenting downtown businesses would help "deal with" open drug use in the area.

"Obviously it's not going to solve drug use, but it will allow people to have a more comfortable experience when they're downtown."