A SAFE injecting room in Footscray would keep heroin users alive, according to western suburbs youth worker Les Twentyman.

Mr Twentyman, who has helped drug-addicted youths for decades, said he had “no doubt” the two-year supervised safe injecting room trial in Richmond announced by the State Government last week would be a success.

He said Footscray had long been one of the state’s worst heroin hot spots, and needed to be the next location for a safe injecting room.

RELATED: Safe drug injecting room trial in Melbourne’s inner north

“We still have people streaming into Footscray every day to score,” Mr Twentyman said.

“Injecting rooms are all about keeping people alive. You can’t rehabilitate a dead person.”

Heroin overdoses hit an all-time high in the late 1990s, but the scourge is making a return.

Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre statistics show in 2005-06 there were 81 hospital presentations in Victoria as a result of heroin use.

That figure has since tripled, with the latest Turning Point statistics reporting 236 hospital presentations in 2014-15. Mr Twentyman said tackling youth unemployment was also critical.

A 2016 report from Brotherhood of St Laurence revealed Footscray and other parts of Melbourne’s west were among the worst places for youth unemployment, with a rate of 17.3 per cent.

Maribyrnong Council’s acting community services director Tara Frichitthavong said the council did not have a policy position on safe injecting rooms, but would work with governments on any such proposal to “ensure it was in the best interests of our local community, including those at risk of harm from injecting drug use”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the safe injecting room trial, along with new health and policing measures, was an important step in tackling the heroin problem. “The hundreds of Victorians losing their lives to drugs are more than just statistics — they are much-loved sons, daughters, parents and friends,” he said.

“The time has come to try something different.”