Quinnipiac River Park.
Found on sidewalk.
Last week, over 30 minutes in mid-morning, my husband and I witnessed open-air drug deals outside of the church next door, followed by drug use next to a school bus. A knife-wielding man rampaged up the street followed by a highly intoxicated woman. Five minutes later, a John and a sex worker engaged in sex acts in the open.
Later that afternoon as I walked my dog in the park, I was overwhelmed by what I saw: a used condom on the sidewalk next to my house and dirty needles, bloody gauzes and empty drug bags littering nearly every bench.
In almost every conversation I have had with sex workers and addicts in my neighborhood, they tell me that what brought them to New Haven is the APT Foundation.
One of the things that I have always loved about New Haven is the city’s ethos of tackling its hardest challenges with compassion, courage, innovation and optimism. New Haven has served as a model for successful cutting-edge solutions that have been replicated nationally. We were the first city to institute community policing on a comprehensive scale; the first city to establish a needle exchange program; and, the first city to issue municipal identification cards for all our residents irrespective of their immigration status.
Discarded drug bag with bloody gauze.
Today New Haven, like many other cities, is struggling with the opioid crisis. But the emergency in our city is of a magnitude unheard of anywhere else in Connecticut as New Haven has become our state’s ground zero for this terrible epidemic. This appears to be largely due to the APT Foundation, an organization whose profile suddenly rose following the massive overdoses on the Green several weeks ago. According to police reports, the majority of those overdosing were APT Foundation clients.
APT has chosen to centralize its dispensing of methadone and buprenorphine in New Haven. And unlike other medication assisted treatment centers, it dispenses drugs whether people have clean urine or not, attracting an even higher proportion of those with the most significant additional needs. According to its Greater Give profile, the organization grew by 250 percent between 2007 and 2015 and they now serve clients from 161 of Connecticut’s 169 towns and cities, as well as 14 other states. Their revenues in 2017 were $27.78 million. The result of this rapid growth and large service area is that addicts have flocked to New Haven from across the region, often staying in our city on the weekdays when the center is open.
In turn, drug dealers have now set up shop close to APT facilities and other areas where APT’s clients congregate to lure and serve this largely suburban population. This includes the Green. Similarly, pimps are taking advantage of and victimizing desperately addicted women. These phenomena led to the dealing and recent overdoses on the Green, but also to a murder last year outside APT’s facility on Congress Avenue.
This crisis has now spread and is impacting many of our city’s neighborhoods. My neighborhood in Fair Haven has drastically changed, and weary neighbors, churches and community based organizations are beginning to come together to try to find ways to address issues of public safety. The number of visibly addicted sex workers has skyrocketed, open air drug dealing is rampant, and drug use in public spaces such as the Quinnipiac River Park is now routine.
At a public hearing last week, residents living close to the APT Foundation testified of similar blight, only to be scolded by Yale affiliated faculty for NIMBYism. The irony did not escape many in the room that some of those levying such accusations don’t live in this city, and certainly do not live in homes on the streets surrounding the APT Foundation.
A dangerous and false dichotomy seems to have also been created – that concerns for public safety mean that you are opposed to providing treatment for addicts. We should all soundly reject this assertion. Instead, we should embrace and work towards a solution that prioritizes both compassionate and effective treatment for addicts as well as preservation of the vibrancy and safety of all our neighborhoods.
It is time for all of us to come together to tackle the problem before another tragedy visits New Haven. Humanity demands that we provide an array of services to help people overcome addiction and turn their lives around. But we must also insist that our neighboring towns and cities –- and our state — join with us to share the responsibility. And we must demand and ensure that the APT Foundation becomes a good neighbor. They must work with us as a willing partner and step up with courage and creativity to address the unintended consequences of their unique model of addiction treatment. They can and should help us keep our communities vibrant and thriving.
Let us bring our best minds, our most creative problem solvers and our most talented providers and organizers to the table. Let us encourage our institutions to commit to solving this constellation of problems. This includes City Hall, Yale University, the APT Foundation, our talented nonprofit organizations, the Proprietors of the Green as well as the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and other town and regional actors. Let us pitch a wide tent, roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Because if we do so, we will surely continue our legacy, becoming the first city in the nation to develop a holistic, successful model for solving the opioid crisis in a way that keeps our communities intact, our neighborhoods vibrant, and our city safe and united.
Kica Matos is a social justice advocate and long time New Haven resident. She lives in Fair Haven.
Click here for a previous story detailing APT’s unique methadone approach, with both APT and its critics weighing in.
Causation is pretty thin here. Opioid crisis has been escalating. APT isn't even in Fair Haven.
It's easy to scapegoat the people who are dealing with this. But that's not going to make things better... let them focus on their work providing treatment. It's not their job to equalize cities and suburbs, or to make up for years of imbalance and inequality.