County's needle drop box 'Healthy Streets' program to expand

Program gets $30k expansion in Multnomah County budget adopted May 25. Commissioner aimed to address livability concerns in Portland neighborhoods.

Multnomah County's Healthy Streets needle drop box program will see a $30,000 expansion to address livability concerns in neighborhoods outside of the downtown core, as well as give syringe users more opportunities to properly dispose of them.

It was an amendment proposed by Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson and approved as part of the county's budget, adopted on May 25.

Healthy Streets was started in 2016 to address the rising number of publicly discarded needles around the waterfront associated with an increase in homeless people hanging around there.

Two drop boxes for syringes were installed so that people who are injecting could have a spot to properly discard them if they can't or don't wish to transport them to a needle exchange.

After reading a story in the Portland Tribune about the rise in dirty needles around the city and their effect on livability in some neighborhoods, as well as the need for more opportunities for proper disposal, Vega Pederson discussed the amendment with Commissioner Sharon Meieran.

"There was probably more that we could do to help the problem," Vega Pederson said. "So we wanted to make sure we're building out the resources already put in place with the collection sites in the inner parts of the city on the east side, making sure that those collection boxes are in good condition."

Vega Pederson's district, district 3, covers Southeast Portland and parts of East Portland, where there have been a number of issues surrounding homelessness and livability concerns like publicly discarded needles, garbage and abandoned RVs.

Vega Pederson lives near a park in East Portland with her two children. The amendment for the syringe drop box program is just one of six amendments she proposed. There will be three new syringe collection sites around the city.

"This piece of it is to focus on increasing collection rates and improving livability," Vega Pederson says. "In addition to the three sites, we will use this funding and opportunity to spread information about sharps containers, what people do if they see the syringes, what resources there are, and what we can do to clean up troubled areas."

Funding for the needle exchange program comes mainly from the county's general fund. There are few opportunities for grant money and only a little comes from the state, and there's no federal funding, according to Kim Toevs, Multnomah County Health Department STD, HIV and harm reduction director.

During 2016, the county needle exchange program saw 3.5 million syringes exchanged. Currently, people are exchanging about 325,000 a month, according to Toevs.

"There's a lot of injection drug use going on," says Toevs. "I think we're going to try to put in three (drop boxes) and the hope is we have them up in the next few months, and then we'll engage with the local community to make sure folks know where they are."

On a larger level, the county and other health agencies are working together on preventative measures to stop people from injecting illegal drugs in the first place. More than half of heroin users in Multnomah County abused prescription drugs first, according to Toevs. Methamphetamine injection is also rising.

"Public health is doing all this work with upstream … so we have fewer people who are addicted to pain pills from their physicians," says Toevs.

Pederson adds that the syringes strewn about are a side effect of a larger problem.

"It's one part of an overall goal, of addressing issues of addiction, opioid over prescription and heroin addiction, and the bigger continuum of that," Pederson says.

Toevs adds, "They're (the bins) not the end all be all, but when the biohazard folks report it's half full, we know it's being used. So I think expanding it to some neighborhoods that are really struggling with this is important."

The goal is to have them installed by the summer, when they expect to see more people sleeping outside.

In 2015, 40 percent of needle exchange clients were homeless, according to the 2016 Tri-County Region Opioid Trends report. Toevs reported that number jumped to 45 percent between July and December 2016.

"Our homeless challenges haven't decreased since last summer, so we're trying to work on it pretty quickly," Toevs said.

There are plenty of others outside of illegal drug users who might need a way to dispose of needles, such as diabetics. Throwing them away exposed in a trash can is illegal.

Find out how to safely dispose of needles and a schedule of needle exchange opportunities at: multco.us/hiv-and-std-services/syringe-exchange-and-disposal