No second safe injecting room in Melbourne

They said $95 million would be spent on health strategies including $36.4 million to establish a new community health service on Flinders Street and $21.3 million to increase community outreach teams.

A report from former Victoria Police commissioner Ken Lay recommended an injecting facility with four to six booths in the CBD, citing the death of one drug injector a month in the city.

The government received the report in May 2023 and it was made public on Tuesday.

Mr Lay said there was widespread acknowledgement the city had a significant injecting drug problem but there were "mixed views" on what the policy and community response should be.

Some 52 per cent of respondents surveyed for the report said there was no need for a supervised injecting service in the city, while 40 per cent said there was such a need.

In 2022, 549 Victorians died from drug overdoses and more than one in 10 fatal heroin overdoses occurred in the City of Melbourne.

Hotspots were intersections along Elizabeth Street where the major thoroughfare meets Flinders Street, La Trobe Street and Franklin Street, and intersections along Swanston Street at Lonsdale Street and Bourke Street.

Consultation on the government's preferred site at 53 Victoria Street near the Queen Victoria Market indicated "broad support" for an injecting centre in the city, but local residents and businesses had concerns about the location, the report said.

Melbourne's first injecting room opened at North Richmond on a trial basis in 2018.