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Pastors Cesar Padilla, Teresa Rivera, and Miguel Castro: Each overcame addiction "when the Lord Jesus came in our lives."
Three pastors and a mayoral challenger took to the steps of City Hall to criticize the Elicker administration for even considering establishing a safe-use injection site downtown — with the clergy arguing that spirituality is the best balm for addiction, and the Republican candidate claiming that city government is further along in such a plan than it has made itself out to be.
Mayor Justin Elicker, meanwhile, asserted that the city is still in the very earliest stages of potentially setting up a medically supervised drug consumption site in an effort to reduce opioid overdoses across the city. He slammed his opponent for continuing to “distort the truth” and try to score political points on the backs of New Haven’s most struggling population.
The anti-safe-injection-site press conference took place on Monday afternoon outside of City Hall at 165 Church St.
Three members of New Haven’s Hispanic Clergy Association — Rev. Teresa Rivera of Bridge of Life Outreach Ministries, Rev. Miguel Castro of Church of Life Healing The Wound, and Rev. Cesar Padilla of Church of God Jesus Is Life — gathered with Republican and Independent Party mayoral candidate Tom Goldenberg for an event described in a Monday morning email press release as: “New Haven Hispanic Clergy Oppose City Plan for Safe Injection Site.”
Goldenberg checking in with the clergy before the start of Monday's presser ...
... and standing alongside them at the event itself.
The event echoed a press conference that Goldenberg held downtown in July at which he claimed that, through Freedom of Information Act requests, he had uncovered a “secretive plan” by city government to set up a medically supervised injection and drug consumption site downtown in a bid to combat opioid overdoses. Mayor Elicker responded at the time that there was no secret plan, but instead the city was in the early stages of figuring out whether such a safe-use site would be a good idea at all and, if it was, where it should be located.
Goldenberg’s complaint led the Board of Alders Health and Human Services Committee to hold a public hearing on the matter. At that hearing, Goldenberg repeated his accusations of secretive city planning, the city’s former top social services chief – who has testified statewide alongside other local healthcare experts in support of such harm reduction centers — reiterated that there was no definite plan in place and no location picked out for safe-use sites. Loved ones of lives lost to overdoses spoke up about the need for such interventions and criticized Goldenberg for politicizing the matter.
While Monday’s email press release did not identify Goldenberg by name, he and campaign advisor Jason Bartlett did attend the three-pastor event. Goldenberg answered questions from the press in which he said he was present simply to support the pastors. He repeated his critiques of the Elicker administration’s tentative proposal.
“We’re here today because it came to our attention that Mayor Elicker would like to open” a safe-injection site downtown, Rivera said. “There’s other ways you can help the addicts,” including with more “detox and rehab programs,” she said. She worried that a safe-use site would lead to increased crime and drug use.
“This opens a legal door for the community to be more involved in drugs,” said Padilla. “There are more resources” available to those who struggle with addiction. Those resources are “spiritual, first of all,” he said. “The solution is not to give them drugs. The solution is to help them come out of the drug addiction. We can help them spiritually.”
Rivera and Castro.
Asked for details on what they think is the best and most effective treatment for people who struggle with addiction, all three pastors said that each of them overcame their own bouts with addiction with the help of the church. They were able to kick their addictions only “when the Lord Jesus came in our lives,” Rivera said.
Goldenberg took umbrage with the mayor’s characterization of safe-use site planning as being only in its “early stages,” given that the city “helped secure” $200,000 for a downtown homelessness services nonprofit to undertake a year-long study of the matter. Asked about what kind of substance use disorder treatment he does support if not safe-use sites, Goldenberg said the state needs to invest more in “treatment beds” and “supportive housing.”
Mayor Elicker (center): "How many times have I responded to Mr. Goldenerg's inaccurate press conferences?"
In a separate phone interview Monday afternoon, Elicker dismissed Goldenberg’s critique. He said that “we don’t have any updates at the moment” besides that the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK) homelessness services nonprofit continues to study this matter.
“We are still considering the potential of a site like this,” the mayor said. “These sites have proven to work in other communities to provide more support for people [and] dramatically decrease overdoses.”
“There are people that are struggling every day. We’re losing New Haven residents every week to overdoses,” he said. “It is so disappointing that Mr. Goldenberg continues to [seek] political gain and distort the truth. How many times have I responded to his inaccurate press conferences?”
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DESK director Steve Werlin.
DESK Executive Director Steve Werlin told the Independent in an email comment on Monday that his nonprofit is still working with a consultant on a year-long study of whether or not to set up a safe-use site. He countered Goldenberg’s claims, and criticized him for continuing to politicize addiction suffering and treatment proposals.
“I’m not aware of any plan among City officials to fund a supervised consumption program in New Haven,” Werlin wrote. “DESK’s Board and staff are currently taking part in a year-long project with a consulting firm to explore any evidence-based public health benefits; the project includes stakeholder engagement in the form of focus groups (which began this fall) and broader community conversations (which will take place over the winter). We look forward to leaders in the faith-based community participating, particularly those who have expressed concerns.”
Werlin added: “DESK’s Board and I feel that these programs are worth exploring in an open, honest, and responsible manner so we can all determine the extent to which such a program in New Haven might both save lives and improve the overall wellbeing of everyone in our community. I am disappointed that the Republican candidate for mayor is using this issue to further his personal political aspirations. The opioid epidemic is a crisis that requires nuanced discussion among well-intentioned, solutions-oriented participants; there should be no room for political opportunism.”
Something evidence-based: safe injection sites can be a useful tool for harm reduction.
Something without evidence: Jesus.