APT’s Toll On Our Neighborhoods

by Kica Matos | Sep 18, 2018 2:39 pm

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Posted to: Health, Opinion, Fair Haven, True Vote

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. 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.

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posted by: alex on September 18, 2018 3:20pm 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.

posted by: Bohica on September 18, 2018 3:43pm I grew up in Fair Haven and moved out in the 90’s when bullets started coming through my walls. All the things you described were happening 25 years this is nothing new, blaming APT Foundation which doesn’t even operate in Fair Haven is crazy.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 18, 2018 3:47pm Kica, Looks like my neighborhood when I moved here 28 years ago…. you need some gentrification vampires!

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 18, 2018 4:21pm Also Kiko, If you wanted some credibility and public sympathy on this story, it would have been more ‘honest’ if this ‘article’ was about ‘stuff’ you saw while walking around on the Green as a shocked Proprietor! This is a poorly constructed ‘connect-the dots’ puzzle. What does the New Haven Parks Department have to say about the state of Quinnipiac River Park?

My guess is a neighborhood campaign can begin to ‘take back the park’—that seems like a pressing concern! A little too much of the wrong kind of finger-pointing here… it seems APT isn’t necessarily the ‘villain’ here, and maybe the people whose actions you are ‘vilifying’ aren’t even in treatment and are in need of help!

posted by: THREEFIFTHS on September 18, 2018 4:34pm posted by: Bill Saunders on September 18, 2018 3:47pm Kica, Looks like my neighborhood when I moved here 28 years ago…. you need some gentrification vampires! Do not worry more gentrification vampires are on the way.

posted by: Statestreeter on September 18, 2018 5:11pm There is an irony of Kica authoring this story. There is also the irony of this, “[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.” Kind of like concerns of unsecured borders and the reasonable request to secure them and recognize the sovereignty of our country means your a racist/xenophobe. It’s funny when liberals get attacked by liberal philosophies.

posted by: AverageTaxpayer on September 18, 2018 5:47pm @ Kica, — How do you pen this piece without including the fact that you are a Proprietor, and part of the secret society claiming to own and be in charge of New Haven’s Town Green? Honestly, what is the plan for making the Green family-friendly? And when are you and your cronies going to hold a public meeting?

posted by: eastshore on September 18, 2018 5:50pm Give me a break. New Haven is a city, and not a very affluent one at that. I lived in Fair Haven 10 years ago, before opioid use was a crisis, before APT grew 250%, and those pictures could’ve been taken back then. Let’s get this straight, APT has changed a lot in those 10 years, Fair Haven has not. APT has grown with the opioid crisis and Fair Haven continues to display the lasting effects of 1970’s urban renewal.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 18, 2018 5:59pm Statestreeter, It is a little more than ‘ironic’. It is ‘tone-deaf’.

posted by: wendy1 on September 18, 2018 6:21pm Good comments. I agree. Dont blame APT either. If this country legalized drug use and closed some of the wealth gap, our streets and parks might be cleaner. Many of these users are homeless or working poor or just poor.

posted by: robn on September 18, 2018 6:38pm Junkies camping out in and trashing our neighborhoods and parks need to go. First step; APT gets the boot.

posted by: Patricia Kane on September 18, 2018 7:20pm Let’s see if we can overcome cognitive dissonance and actually explore 2 divergent points of view.

1. The harm reduction model of treatment for drugs works to reduce the risk of injury to the patient first and gets to other issues afterwards.

2. Residents have a right to experience their homes and public places without exposure to Impaired people acting inappropriately.

This should be the start of a conversation and not the opportunity to diverge into peripheral issues about the Proprietors.

I read this article as a plea for specific institutions to collaborate on solutions. If neither the Mayor, the Board of Alders, the NHPD, Yale or APT can generate such a collaboration, at least acknowledge that this is what is being asked.

The problems described are not limited to the Hill or Fair Haven or the Green.

At least the writer is trying to locate people within those institutions who are willing to collaborate.

Will they respond?

posted by: budman on September 18, 2018 7:34pm If Apt has been growing since 2007 and this is a more prevalent issue now, maybe we should look at what else has changed? Like our police department? Maybe we should hold our Police to hirer standards of enforcement?

posted by: Brendantibbets on September 18, 2018 7:48pm This smacks of: NOT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD! However the self proclaimed social justice warrior fails to mention the fact that she is a proprietor of the New Haven Green. A clandestine group is similarly situated social justice warriors that has done nothing to quell what has become the Amsterdam of the northeast. This is what was created by hamstringing law enforcement, embracing illegal immigration and a penchant to legalize or even mainstream drug use. The chickens have come home to roost in a neighborhood near you!

posted by: yim-a on September 18, 2018 8:09pm Wierd essay. In the five years I lived in Fair Haven (just off Front across from Lewis street park) the dominant narrative was how much better Fair Haven (or at least that slice of Fair Haven) has become. My neighbor, who’s lived there since the 80s, told me stories about the rampant drug use and prostitution in the park. Linking APT to the drug trade in Fair Haven is just, well, bizarre.

posted by: narcan on September 18, 2018 8:31pm Sounds good, but considering your position, it would be better to hear a plan of action rather than a call to action.

posted by: concerned_neighbor on September 18, 2018 9:12pm First step - APT stops dispensing to those with dirty urine. Traffic drops dramatically (and so does APT’s profits (cough) I mean operating revenue) Second step - enjoy cleaner New Haven.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 18, 2018 9:37pm Patricia Kane, Any cognitive dissonance here was created by the author of this article trying to conflate two separate issues, and cast some ‘shade’ on an addiction center under fire. .

posted by: LookOut on September 18, 2018 10:14pm it’s fine to suggest that the gentrification vampires are coming…but they are not arriving fast enough or in great enough volume. What can we do to attract more?

posted by: JackiLu14 on September 18, 2018 10:45pm As an APT patient and New Haven resident this is thee most ignorant article I’ve read especially from a so called activists. First off, Fair Haven has drastically improved since the 90s. These behaviors you speak of have been going on for decades. DECADES. They don’t come to New Haven because of methadone, most aren’t even on methadone!!! They come because that is where the drugs are. There is an officer outside Congress Ave all day. There are other methadone clinics in other towns that don’t have any of these issues. There are parts of New Haven that don’t have methadone clinics that have these same issues. To try to tie this to a methadone clinic in anyway is a display of how uneducated this author is. Go speak with some of the sex workers in New Haven, I don’t know of many on methadone and I work with them daily! Methadone saves lives. Pimps and drug dealers have been on our city corners since before methadone was thought of. Stop trying to find scapegoats.

posted by: opin1 on September 19, 2018 12:41am This drug crisis exists in every town. There needs to be treatment options in every town. Whatever APT is offering in New Haven needs to be offered in every town. Its not like there are major pieces of equipment/overhead that require treatment centers to be centralized. There would be a slight increase in overhead for having more offices but the benefits would be massive: 1. Patients wouldn’t need to spend hours hopping buses to New Haven. How can one hold a job when they need to spend 2-3 hours every day going to New Haven for treatment? The stress of this daily journey alone would hinder one’s chances of breaking their addiction.

2. Quality of care - more personalized care in smaller offices with less patients. Staff gets to know the patients better.

3. Patients wouldn’t be herded together where they are easily preyed upon by dealers or other negative influences.

4. Places that do offer treatment (New Haven) wouldn’t get overrun with addicts.

posted by: RealElmHavener on September 19, 2018 6:05am Let’s not get distracted by the NHI trolls who spend their days disparaging and attacking people. The focus of this conversation, as Ms. Kane pointed to, should be the way that the APT foundation has ruined our neighborhoods without taking any responsibility for their reckless policies. If blame is to be placed anywhere, it should be at the source - not the NHPD, or the Proprietors, or City Hall, or neighborhood residents, all of whom have inherited a serious problem that will get worse if nothing is done.

posted by: southwest on September 19, 2018 7:08am Oh how I like the comments of people like the Yalie and others who don’t have to live in this environment. How dare they suggest that we taxpayers of New Haven should look the other way with all the high taxes we are paying plus some of their salaries..Everyone that pay taxes and want to live in a safe environment has a right to. It’s not being mean are inconsiderate it’s about being realistic knowing you can’t save every druggie out there and their are some who choose not to conform because this is a drug of their choice and will continue to do it until they OD..We have made it to easy for people who do not want to conform or get help..We just keep spending taxpayers money with no positive results. So let find a building in East Rock, East Shore,West Haven,Hamden,Guilford,Branford and all these other little surburan town and see how fast its rejected. Why should New Haven have to be the dumping ground for Yale to do their so call humanity efforts,when all they are doing is research to write their books and to make money from the drug companies..Did anyone see the special on 60 Minutes how this work..You convinced the people it’s working even though it’s not by bogus research that never took place.. What percentage of those people who go to APT Foundation actually live here..that I would like to no.Secondly how many other towns have a APT Foundation in their little perfect city so they can take care of their own misguided kids and citizens..just saying!! How dare you try to shame the people of New Haven because we want to clean up our city..My suggestion to all the “Saver of Mankind” move the APT next to your house and see what it feels like seeing people OD ing all over the place..Most of you haven’t lived it,witness it and have no clue what it’s like..Until you have witnesses it and lived in that environment please do not be so quick and Godly to shame others who have..As I stated before all people can not be saved..So save the ones who want to be saved..

posted by: robn on September 19, 2018 9:33am The problems are city wide and didn’t start yesterday but have gotten really bad in the past few years. There is a continuing problem of drug users camping out (and completely trashing their surroundings) off of Union Street in Wooster Sq and off of English Drive in East Rock. Let’s not empower this behavior by being a major destination for drug abusers. The best idea I’ve heard is for no treatment clinic to treat those without clean urine.

posted by: alex on September 19, 2018 9:58am We couldn’t put an APT foundation center in the suburbs even if it could get past the zoners and the townspeople with their pitchforks. How would people get there? Ever see a bus stop on Route 1 in Milford or Madison? I see workers waiting in the sun outside big box stores, on the side of the road, without bus stops… I don’t see realistic transportation for people who need drug treatment. Walkability, centrality, aggregation—it’s New Haven’s blessing in this day and age of technology and information, and its curse in the age of inequality and oppression. Want to talk about improving New Haven neighborhoods? How about the millions of dollars spent on incarcerating former residents of New Haven city blocks, because of the war on drugs? What if we took that money and used it to improve neighborhoods?

posted by: Patricia Kane on September 19, 2018 10:41am @Bill Saunders: As a supporter of the harm reduction approach generally, I support APT’S treatment model, but that is not to say we shouldn’t ask the major players in this case, which included APT, to participate in some problem solving.

Addiction is a public health issue, but it also impacts our neighborhoods and our public spaces.

I think the real deficit here may be the City’s failure to set up an effective LEAD program, which is based on harm reduction and has reportedly worked well in other cities, starting with Seattle.

An effective LEAD program couples treatment with real life solutions, like housing, but it has to be set up and funded.

Does anyone know what is in place and whether it is following the Seattle model?

posted by: opin1 on September 19, 2018 10:54am @alex, you’re probably right you couldn’t put an APT foundation center in a single suburban town, that town wouldn’t stand for it. But if you said we’re going to put a small office in every town at (roughly) the same time (perhaps taking office space in already existing medical buildings in those towns); and these offices would only treat a number of people proportionate to the size of that town, I think suburban towns would agree to that. (I don’t think they would deny that their own town contains people affected by addiction). Some suburban towns already have treatment centers - they just aren’t providing the exact same service as APT in New Haven. You ask “how would people get there?”. I don’t think the transportation issue gets more complicated by having one in every town, I think it makes it easier. If you lived in a suburban town and didn’t have a car, would you rather have to find a way to get to an office in your own town, or would you rather have to go to New Haven? In my own town I might be able to have a friend or relative give me a ride or take a $6 uber, or ride my bike, etc. Not to mention many addicts do have cars and those would certainly rather drive within than their town than go to New Haven. And if getting to an office in your own suburban town was harder than going to New Haven, then you could still go to New Haven.

posted by: TheMadcap on September 19, 2018 10:56am I feel like there are three main things to keep in mind

1. Any clinic in a line of work like APT is inherently going to draw in what is not an optimal crowd. APT policies however definitely tend to exacerbate it. It is a cliche at this point, but honesty anyone who has ever rode the Whitney bus that is the 229(Waterbury bus, vs 228 which only goes into Hamden) towards downtown in the morning can attest to this. The solution seems clear, APT should be able to open a facility in Waterbury or a surrounding town. New Haven already provides near all the social services for our region and now we have to do it with others? 2. With that said, let’s not pretend APT or the 229 bus are by themselves devastating neighborhoods. Most neighborhoods in New Haven are better than they were 20+ years ago. 3. How APT runs its business may be questionable, a woman interviewed in a previous article mentioned the lack of counselor, and I have two friends who formerly went to APT where APT would basically not help them get off methadone or even taper to the level they wished(they finally did on their own, but anecdotes=/= data). Those issues aside, the overall premise of medicating individuals both same day and regardless of urine is beneficial and has probably saved numerous lives.

posted by: #30# on September 19, 2018 11:34am I am newbie to the Fair Haven area, living and working here just 19 years. I no longer work in FH, but I walk the same streets and visit the same parks as you almost every day. As long as I can remember I have found needles, used condoms, folks sleeping the night away on park benches, the cemetery, and the more secluded parking lots. Surely, APT did not cause this despair then nor does it now. APT engages in harm reduction, unlike punitive and much more interested in insurance payment drug rehab clinics. Addiction is a disease but unlike cancer It doesn’t go into remission. It is chronic and constant. Here are some harm reduction treatment principles: Understands drug use as a complex phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from severe abuse to total abstinence, and acknowledges that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others. Establishes quality of individual and community life and well-being–not necessarily cessation of all drug use–as the criteria for successful interventions and policies. Calls for the non-judgmental, non-coercive provision of services and resources to people who use drugs and the communities in which they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm. I don’t like living in an open air drug market either but Fair Haven has been such for at least the almost two decades I have lived here. It is convenient to blame APT but blame belongs on us. Let’s demand that the towns exploiting our goodwill begin to provide clinics and treatment for this very real disease. Treat this as the medical problem it is. Stop villianizing the users and get past the anti-social effects of forcing a disease to go underground. I know through work & personal associations that harm reduction works. Yes, APT could explain and work better on this with NH neighborhoods. But, we have to be willing partners and we may have to pay to help users. It would help if NHI could cover this as a disease and not as a social anathema.

posted by: The Green Thumb on September 19, 2018 11:48am I cannot speak for Fair Haven but I see daily the impact that this crisis is having on the green. On an average day we see 3-5 ambulances taking overdose victims away from the green. We endure the aggressive panhandling and drug sales that are driving down foot traffic and making people feel unsafe about coming downtown. There are times when it looks like a scene out of the walking dead. What mother is going to bring their kids to the green and expose them to this. What worker wants to shop on their lunch hour if they are repeatedly approached for money? I have been working here in downtown for more than 20 years and have never seen it this bad before. My fear is that as fewer and fewer people come downtown, the businesses will eventually start to give up and we will begin looking more like Hartford where the city clears out at 5:00. It’s easy to give the APT foundation a pass given the important work they’re doing but it also comes with the responsibility of being a good neighbor. They are a For Profit organization and they need to put some of those profits into supporting their clientele. Things like larger waiting areas would certainly benefit those getting treated while not pushing them back out onto the street. And where is the police presence? Ever since the Great OD of 2018, they are actively patrolling again but for how long? Once it quiets down they’ll be reassigned to other priorities and we’ll be right back to where we were.

posted by: robn on September 19, 2018 12:12pm Everyone who says that things are the same as they’ve been for 20 years are wrong. The city got progressively better under Mayor DeStefano but under the permissive regime of the suburban union dominated Board of Alders and Mayor Harp, the quality of life downtown has definitely regressed.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 19, 2018 12:31pm Patricia Kane, I have absolutely no problem with addicts seeking treatment or APT’s treatment ‘model’. What I have a real problem with is this ‘scapegoating’. Especially from somebody who should supposedly know better. And yes, THAT is a serious issue, that gets in the way of ‘progress’.

posted by: alex on September 19, 2018 12:42pm @opin1, fair enough. But we aren’t going to get treatment in the suburbs by attacking it in the cities.

posted by: LivingInNewHaven on September 19, 2018 1:13pm Struggling to identify the real facts within this piece. Is her husband getting ready to challenge the mayor this time around….is this the reason for a finger pointing article? I really expected a different type of article from this author. Disappointed. Turned off. Maybe this is a window into the true person behind what we normally see.

New Haven has its issues. We all do. But blaming one entity for the drug problems just because some addicts told you so is shallow, amateurish, and short sited. Im may be going out on a limb to say, I think there is political intention behind it.

By the way, I was walking along Long Wharf last week and saw a used condom on the ground…is that because of the Apt Foundation too…Give me a break and write a real fact based piece. Shame on the author.

posted by: Xavier on September 19, 2018 2:05pm Some may know that I am a big One City Henry Fernandez supporter. He and Kica are the ones who act, “activist type” and get everyone else moving. Kica has done so with her article given the many comments here. One City Henry’s ill-fated run for major should not take the wind out of his sails. One City Henry and Kica are the most interesting couple in New Haven.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 19, 2018 3:21pm The only big Red Light in this article is minor children being exposed to ‘live sex acts’ in public spaces.

posted by: 1644 on September 19, 2018 3:40pm Serious question: APT has clinics in North Haven and West Haven. Why aren’t we reading about the problems New Haven has happening in North Haven and West Haven? Are addicts coming to New Haven because of APT, or because compassionate New Haven allows the open sale and use of illegal drugs? Do North and West Haven have less tolerance for illegal drug use and sale?

posted by: manofthepeople on September 19, 2018 8:30pm Kica, Thank you for finally saying something about the problem. It’s sad that it took national attention on a problem that everyone has been aware of for ages for people to be able to begin discussing solutions. APT has failed the population it is servicing, and it has failed the surrounding community. With so many of its patients abusing the support system and terrorizing the local community, it is obvious that tax money is being wasted, and the quality of life severely impacted.

posted by: new havener on September 19, 2018 10:57pm 30 minutes of lawless mayhem. Only mention of Community Policing is in passing. The first paragraph is a complete indictment of New Haven’s decline. If I had more time I would’ve made a haiku. ;(

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 20, 2018 1:34am Living in New Haven, I think that is one strong limb your are inching along!

posted by: robn on September 20, 2018 8:35am LINH, I was also personally speculating that this was a hint of Henry running again but then realized that this is probably Kica channeling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I wouldn’t be surprised if she runs.

posted by: Ben Howell on September 20, 2018 10:16am I am dissappointed by this article and viewpoint. It is unfortunate, perpetuates stigma and misconceptions about people who use drugs, people who get treatment for drug addiction, addiction treatment, and the services APT provides. It does not move the conversation forward and creates an antagonism towards APT and people who seek treatment there that does not help the conversation. I was at the Board of Alders meeting you say “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.” THIS IS FALSE. I was there. All of the people who spoke up in support of APT live in New Haven and clearly stated their New Haven addresses when giving testimony. I was one of those people. Second, APT “And unlike other medication assisted treatment centers, it dispenses drugs whether people have clean urine or not.” Yes, APT does not push people off methadone/buprenorphine into the illicit drug market that is a death sentence for too many people. THIS IS A GOOD THING. Think about the alternative and all the “treatment” providers who create barriers to treatment (due to moralizing, paternalistic, absolutist models that don’t work!) that lead to more people dying and suffering from addiction. APT did not make this problem. APT is dealing with this problem, providing treatment, and meeting people where they are at. APT’s safety net services are saving lives in the middle of an opioid overdose epidemic that is killing 1,000 people in Connecticut every year We need leadership from the city and state that INCREASES services like APT’s if we want to see overdoses go down. Finally, “addicts,” or better said, PEOPLE who use drugs are PEOPLE. Stop with the dehumanizing, moralizing, stigmatizing language. Paul Bass & Kica Matos. I am dissappointed by you both. Benjamin A. Howell, MD MPH

New Haven Resident *AND* Yale Physician

posted by: Notmattman on September 20, 2018 10:26am I appreciate this opinion piece and what it adds to the New Haven conversation about responses to the opioid crisis. Regardless of what New Haven has been in the past (and if it is worse now or not), we live in New Haven of the now. The current crisis, and addiction in general, affects all areas of the city, but this is a good reminder for me that there are a host of related things affecting the quality of life of some of our folks more. I would live to read an article about how community groups, the city, the APT Foundation, etc are working together to mitigate these problems. Continued articles and opinion pieces scapegoating APT is getting a little old. What I do not appreciate is needing to be reminded from commenters that the author is also a proprietor of the New Haven Green. Particularly since this group has been mentioned in several related articles and is one of the major areas affected. Is this an oversight, NHI? Or continued bias against APT? Or…?

posted by: Henry J. Fernandez on September 20, 2018 11:19am Let me get out of the way the NHI objectivity alert: I am Kica Matos’s husband. Some responses to issues raised in the comments: 1. Some commenters think Fair Haven has always been awful, why speak now: We have lived in our home for 15 years and love Fair Haven. The neighborhood has improved a lot since we bought a vacant, former gang house and renovated it. Our neighbors have done a great job creating a welcoming street and the park has been a place for children and families to congregate. Of course it is an urban neighborhood, but the open sale of drugs and prostitution after years of things getting much better is new and a problem to be solved. 2. The APT foundation is not in Fair Haven so why blame it: Okay but we don’t live in New York City or Los Angeles—all neighborhoods are pretty close to each other. People get between APT and downtown all the time. It is less than 1 and a half miles from the heart of downtown to the heart of Fair Haven. People walk, bike and ride between both neighborhoods daily. 3. This is NIMBYism and shameful: Kica’s article is pretty much the opposite of NIMBYism. She said clearly that we need to find a solution that helps people recover while not creating a new crisis that broadly impacts public safety. There are two concerns: (1) will other towns continue to not be part of the solution, concentrating issues in New Haven? and (2) will APT continue to ignore its impact on surrounding neighborhoods? 4. I’m a New Haven resident, Yale physician, and support APT, so stop passing judgement on addicted people: It is great you live in New Haven. The issue Kica raised was that APT is not taking seriously the unintended consequences of its model. If your background is public health, this is a pretty common public health problem to solve. Solving one problem has caused another. The answer is not to continue to point to the first solution. 5. Her husband is running for mayor: (1) No, and (2) Kica does not need me to have an opinion.

posted by: TSTesla on September 20, 2018 11:56am Dear Kica,

for the last 12 years I have lived in Connecticut, I have been on methadone maintenance. I am from Colorado, I started it there some 10 years after when I was in my late teens, I broke my back following a 4 wheel driving accident which i was sitting in the backseat. I so i started methadone when I was 29 years old. I am repulsed by what I see going on at the clinic. I have battled over the years to taper down and get off on Methadone permanently. And mark my words, I will be free of this roller coaster upon a day. when I broke my back, I was 18, doctors threw Oxycontin at me, as well as Vicodin. for 2 years straight. then after that two years, my surgeon just took me off of it. I had no idea I was an “addict,” until the horrible withdraws hit me.. I am a stubborn person.I couldn’t work, couldn’t accomplish daily tasks.Finally, though I didn’t want to, a friend took me to the methadone clinic..(he was in the same car accident as me, broke many bones) Now,this year has been “the year of the sex worker, and the great Crack and heroin flood of 08.” now I haven’t used in 14 years. I have clean urine tests, and I am on a slow taper off of the methadone. I have never seen so much drugs rise in numbers in such little time. you cannot blame it on APT Foundation.. It would be akin to blaming the cancer ward for people getting cancer.(yes addiction IS a disease. and it does have a cure.) The recent police presence at APT and the green has helped tremendously.

Now. my only advice for the city, is to move the bus station from the green, to the property across from the train station. they could build a nice station there, and a park, and it being next to the police station, I think it would give the green back to Yale and the gentrification nation. this is a problem that unfortunately, pointing one finger will not work…We need to unite.. I would love to be a voice for the addicts that do not abuse the system. and there are many of us out there.

posted by: alex on September 20, 2018 12:01pm APT saves lives. If we circumscribe their efforts, people will die. More OD deaths won’t make our neighborhoods safer or better. Let’s get other towns on board with establishing centers for treatment. You know how we’re not going to do that? Blaming treatment centers for all of our city’s problems.

posted by: TSTesla on September 20, 2018 12:14pm I am a recovering Addict that hasn’t used illicit drugs in 14 years. i go to a men’s group at APT every Monday. there are many of us that are working to taper off of methadone, and that are also disgusted by what we see. I would like to gather a small group of recovering addicts to go to town meetings, to give a voice from “the inside” so to speak.though there are many of us who are doing things the right way, following protocol, living healthy lives, (I go to the gym,) unfortunately, we are outnumbered by people who are homeless, alcoholics, addicted to more than one substance. i truly believe deep down, that those numbers can change, and start a momentum that can Make New Haven strive in yet another first: first city to treat the homeless and addicted, the sex worker, who is making money to get drugs, the people who are not even on the program, but go there just to score drugs, to take on these seemingly insurmountable odds with a bravery and candor that will prove that by creating programs that can get people into treatment, and yes, by possibly looking at what APT could do better.

I think we can win… But we must be united. on all fronts.. not just by pointing one finger in one direction.

thank you..

posted by: TSTesla on September 20, 2018 12:54pm Typo from my first comment: “the great sex worker, crack and heroin flood of 18, not 08.. ” yes, we have a big problem in New Haven. being New Haven is Yale, people take notice when things like murder, or a record number of overdoses occur. we should take this as a opportunity to reach out and give treatment to the addicted in a dignified way, and teach the non-addicted about the horrors opiates can inflict upon the addict, and their loved ones, and in this case, the city in which we live.

posted by: Ben Howell on September 20, 2018 12:59pm to : Henry J. Fernandez - “4. I’m a New Haven resident, Yale physician, and support APT, so stop passing judgement on addicted people: It is great you live in New Haven. The issue Kica raised was that APT is not taking seriously the unintended consequences of its model. If your background is public health, this is a pretty common public health problem to solve. Solving one problem has caused another.” I would flip this around - APT is dealing with the unintended (intended?) consequences of *other* treatment models that create barriers to treatment or are not offered in other cities & neighborhoods. APT is also on the frontline dealing with the ongoing epidemic of fatal overdoses and the failure of our state & country to *expand* treatment services.The *intended* consequences of APT’s model involves saving lives, keeping people in treatment, and reducing harms of opioid and other addictions. I fundamenally disagree that APT is *causing* this problem. AND yes, I take affront at Ms. Matos’s stigmatizing language about people who use drugs and use treatment services. If her goal was to move the conversation forward, improve treatment access & improve partnerships & communication in the city, this is *not* where to start from. I also take affront at her characerization of people supporting APT, myself included. It does not help the conversation to frame it as “do-gooder non-New Haven resident Yalies” vs “Real New Haveners.” These are reductive categories that do not get people to the table in good faith. We can do this *together* but we must agree on the science of addiction, what the problem is, and the language we use to describe it.

posted by: RealElmHavener on September 20, 2018 1:08pm I am appalled and quite frankly disgusted by the comments from the Yale public health community. From the protection of their Ivory walls, they have launched an all out vicious tirade and attack on a resident who is telling a truth that they don’t want to admit. It’s insulting for the privileged elite to be accusing those who have to put up with the toxic effects of their failed experimentation for NIMBYism. It’s a cheap and dishonest. Circle back to us when you relocate the APT Foundation at Yale University.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 20, 2018 3:39pm TS Tesla, Thank you for your openness, honesty, and candor here.

This is the only way progress is made. You just added a ‘dimension of reality’ to this discussion that was noticeably lacking. Great Posts!

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 20, 2018 3:50pm Real ElmHavener, I’m siding with the Phd here who is a well-educated, licensed Professional.

The kind of knowledge and compassion for the ‘addicted’ Dr Howell just showed in his post is worthy of some serious respect. You are falling into a bad trap here—REH, portraying NH as a black and white polarized world where there are only binary answers. Black/White, Man/Woman, Town/Gown…. The only real conflict in this town is Power vs. People.

Dr Howell came out on the right side of that inherent ‘conflict’ Thumbs up, Doc!

posted by: RealElmHavener on September 20, 2018 4:22pm Yalies and APT people in Denial: put down your pitchforks and solve this problem. Instead of attacking respected community members on this website, focus your time on fixing this mess you have created.

posted by: Xavier on September 20, 2018 10:35pm robn on September 20, 2018 8:35am

LINH,

I was also personally speculating that this was a hint of Henry running again but then realized that this is probably Kica channeling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I wouldn’t be surprised if she runs. Sad to hear One City Henry is not running for mayor. Very excited to hear that Kica maybe running for mayor, or even better, for DeLaura’s seat (about time she retire). Kica honest activist gets us moving…when Kica swims at Light House, dolphins come out to greet her. She is the most interesting woman in New Haven

posted by: NH06515 on September 20, 2018 10:55pm I just don’t see how you can draw a straight line between APT and Fair Haven and the Green going downhill. I’ve been in New Haven 35 years and Fair Haven has always been a solid drug and prostitution spot. The Green has always been dicey. Some fluctuating levels of seediness, but, overall, it’s unchanged. Maybe policing pushed some of it off the Green a block or two but the problems have never been solved. APT is an asset. There is a large community of medication compliant, middle class working clients who visit the clinic once a week or once every two weeks. It’s the people new to treatment, jobless, lacking education and still actively using heroin who cause most of the problems. Those people either filter out of treatment or eventually are thrown off the program. There are some people that treatment just doesn’t help. Usually dual diagnosis with other issues like homelessness and untreated mental illness. But I think for every APT failure there are 20 successes. Let’s focus on that. There are alternatives to methadone like buprenorphibe that can be prescribed at a doctors office. There are prescribers all over new haven. The major difference is you have to pay for buprenorphibe or have insurance. So the clientele is mostly middle class and working. Instead of blaming APT let’s have zero tolerance for crime on the Green. If anything, APT should be encouraged to grow and expand. And how can anyone begrudge them for making money? They must have huge overhead with rent and staff and compliance with state and federal law. I am sure their executives are compensated far below what they are truly worth. Addiction medicine for the poor is not a high paying specialty. Unlike those black suvs on orange street across from 200 orange at the high end rehab center. No one complains about their impact. Let’s be thankful for what we have. If it can be improved, great. You never know when you’ll have an addicted family member who can’t detox and needs maintenance.

posted by: Sabrina-in-NewHaven on September 21, 2018 10:48am Not one mention that APT is located less than a block from an elementary school. And let’s not fool ourselves. Fair Haven isn’t the only part of New Haven stuck in the 70s. Moving to New Haven from my hometown was like stepping back in time period! What New Haven needs are younger and more progressive leaders. It is unthinkable that a city that can produce amazing nonprofits like New Haven Reads, Squash Haven, Elmseed, etc cannot figure out what to do. Actually, we know what to do but no one wants to say the truth. No one has the balls. And nowhere did I see blame placed on APT. What I read is one person’s statement of facts as she’s experienced them. You don’t have to agree with Kica but you damn well get your heads out of your asses. We are a sanctuary city, we have amazing universities here. We have innovative companies here like See Click Fix so it is clear that what is missing is real leadership. I walk by the Green at least 3 times a week. I’ve been more inclined to stop and speak with young people there when they are soliciting. I won’t give them money but I will buy them something to eat if they accept. And even when I wasn’t working I’d sometimes have fruit on me. We don’t get to speak about these people without being incredibly aware of their humanity. We cannot legislate this issue. Our police need to be in the streets. There are “Neighborhood Watch” signs everywhere but no one is watching. Everyone is hiding and pretending like this doesn’t exist. They only get away with it because we allow it. I can’t use the library without being harassed by some of these transient. I can be kind but I will not tolerate that! And the protest of the library was complete and utter nonsense. We have amateur activists who think the library should be their sanctuary. No, the hell it shouldn’t? APT’s budget might be $27mil but 1/5 is spent on support services. They have fewer counselors, serving more people. Agencies like this are always expected to do more with less.

posted by: Bill Saunders on September 21, 2018 1:44pm Sabrina in NH, Another great post! You are beginning to see some of the real truths about New Haven….

What looks good on the Facade is really just a propped up Wild West Movie Set with no director

posted by: NH06515 on September 22, 2018 12:22am Sabrina In NH’s comment is dead on. We have an absolute failure of leadership. Crisis of leadership. We have a political class that is out of touch with reality. They are not working for the betterment of our city or it’s residents. Our Board of Alders has been co-opted by outside nefarious interests. Our politics is a proxy for an ongoing battle between labor unions and Yale University. Our mayor utterly lacks leadership ability. Our board of education is a joke. We have beautiful buildings that can’t be maintained and are filled with some great teachers and many more who are protected by union rules that make it impossible to get them out. And nepotism and tribalism prevail throughout. At the city and at the board of education. it’s not about merit it’s about who you know, who you donated to, and who you have some dirt on. Out of this chaos we need a new Justin Elicker or radical thinker willing to scrutinize how things work at city hall. We’d have a few tough years but the ship could be righted because our fundamentals are strong. We have talented people, a port, some mass transit, proximity to NY, reasonably affordable housing (some will disagree) and so much more. Anchor employers. Great arts and quality of life. We have so much talent under 50 years old but I see so few of these people being asked to serve on boards and commissions. Instead, it’s friends of Alders with no experience. Whether it’s zoning or education or any of the other active boards, look at the people making the decisions. They suck Lastly, every political meeting I’ve been to in the last five years has been dominated by the older generation who have the time in retirement or late career to make the connections and relationships that many of us interested but younger people don’t have. All the while, we elect the same old same old and wonder why our taxes go up, bond rating plummets, and the prevailing view is that New Haven is a dump. Let’s find a way to make our City strong.