Wracked by Opioid Crisis, Philadelphia Braces for Tent-Camp Closures

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Wracked by Opioid Crisis, Philadelphia Braces for Tent-Camp Closures
City tries to get people to shelters and programs before clearing
tunnels; residents—their patience frayed—hope for relief
By Jon Kamp, Photos by D. Reuter, 5/28/18, Wall St Journal

PHILADELPHIA—Beneath a freight railway north of downtown, an estimated
200 people congregate in tents and atop mattresses in four dank
tunnels. Many openly inject opioids into their hands, arms and necks.

The drug use spills out into the city’s row-house-filled Kensington
neighborhood. On a recent sunny day, a gaunt man rocked in place on a
nearby street, a syringe gripped sideways in his mouth, as three
children walk by. Residents frequently find used syringes and say
streets have become toilets.

Many neighborhood residents said their patience is frayed, even as
they sympathize with people caught in the grip of addiction. The city,
citing health and safety hazards, plans to begin closing some of the
encampments Wednesday morning. Yellow signs went up on April 30 giving
people a month to clear out.

“The drug traffic around here is traumatizing,” said Gillian Esquivel,
a 30-year-old woman who helped found a neighborhood association.

The tent camps line broad sidewalks running through tunnels underneath
the railroad tracks. Police will clear out two of them this week—along
Kensington Avenue and Tulip Street—leaving two more for now.

Less than a week before the eviction date, one couple at the Tulip
Street camp prepared to move into an overnight shelter. They hoped for
stability and jobs, the man said. Another man worried he would soon be
living in a weedy field nearby.

A wiry man known as Ghost, who has lived in the Tulip Street tunnel
for several months, said he planned to help campers move before the
city takes their things. He believes people need more opportunities to
find jobs and housing, and said forcing them from the tunnels will
just cause them to settle somewhere nearby.

“And then they’ll have us move from there,” he said.

City officials want to avoid this, especially after drawing criticism
that the four encampments are byproducts of the city’s work with
Conrail to close a longstanding drug market last summer. That one was
more hidden, in a nearby freight-railway gulch, while the newer camps
have thrust more drug activity into public view.

The city rejects the notion that it shifted the problem from one site
to another. It provided substantial outreach last year, and the new
encampments have a largely new population, said Liz Hersh,
Philadelphia’s director of homeless services. The site the city closed
was more of a drug market and shooting gallery than a camping ground,
she said.

The new camps are symptoms of Philadelphia’s crushing problem with
drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, which the city blames on decades of
heavy opioid prescribing in Pennsylvania and beyond, plus the city’s
reputation for some of the purest, cheapest heroin on the East Coast.
Throughout Philadelphia, drug overdoses killed 1,217 people last year,
a 34% climb from 2016.

Homeless encampments have become common sights around the U.S., with
numbers exploding in the last decade due to rising housing costs and
stagnant wages, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness &
Poverty. The nonprofit counted 274 media reports of unique encampments
nationwide in 2016. They are particularly common in California.

Philadelphia’s encampments are tethered firmly to the city’s drug
problem, which has long simmered in the Kensington neighborhood.

“We have never seen a crisis like this before in Philadelphia and
doing nothing is not an option,” said Michael DiBerardinis,
Philadelphia’s managing director, when the city launched a pilot plan
to clear two tunnels.

Drawing on lessons from other cities, that plan includes intensive
outreach to get people into shelters and treatment before the police
move in, the city said. Coordinating with nonprofits, the city wants
to speed assessments and quickly shuttle people to treatment when
they’re ready.

The city’s most recent data, from May 18, show nearly 100 people from
the two tunnels have accepted some kind of service, including many in
treatment, a health department spokeswoman said.

Hector, a 29-year-old, said he recently lived in the Kensington
tunnel. Sober for the past month, he now lives and serves hot meals at
a recovery clubhouse around the corner. He expects many people will
migrate deeper into the neighborhood when the city clears the tunnels.

People living in nearby homes shared these concerns. They spoke warmly
of their community and of concern for people in dire conditions but
said the drug problem is boiling over.

“I don’t think it’s what’s healthy for the people. I don’t think it’s
healthy for our community. I don’t think it’s healthy for our children
in particular,” said Brian White, who lives in a row house with his
wife and 2-year-old son near the Tulip Street camp. A real-estate
title researcher, Mr. White also works with a nonprofit that helps
children and families affected by the opioid crisis.

Dana, who was sitting outside on her stoop, said she was afraid to let
her nine-month-old grandson play outside for fear of needles. One
local garage owner showed a plastic water bottle where he collected
five needles cleaned from his tiny patch of sidewalk that morning.

The drug selling amplifies the tension. Ms. Esquivel of the
neighborhood association said one of her home’s windows was shattered
earlier this month, a day after telling two dealers they couldn’t sell
on her street. Thankfully, she said, a Molotov cocktail bounced off
the glass.

Starting at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the city will remove property still
in the tunnels. Workers will continue to offer shelter and treatment,
but police will issue citations and enforce camp closures. Ms. Hersh,
the city’s homeless services director, hopes most people will get to a
safer place.

“At the end of the day, the people we are working with are human
beings,” said Elvis Rosado, education and community outreach
coordinator at Prevention Point Philadelphia, a local nonprofit that
provides health and safety services for drug users.

Write to Jon Kamp at jon....@wsj.com

https://www.wsj.com/articles/wracked-by-opioid-crisis-philadelphia-braces-for-tent-camp-closures-1527332400