I read that OnPoint requires about $4.5 million per year to operate around the clock. How difficult or easy is it for you to get the funds you need?
Very difficult. We’ve survived through fundraising, with the support of some great individuals and a few foundations. The part of our work that is considered illegal is observe of drug use. Once people have used it, we only provide basic harm reduction services. Observation is only a small part of our job.
Is observation illegal because of the federal “crack house act”?
Correct.
Has there been any progress toward deregulation?
Everyone is waiting for the outcome of the Safehouse case. Safehouse’s victory won’t eliminate crack house regulation, but it will certainly open the door to show how wrong it is.
When you talk to people who still say that overdose prevention centers are facilitating drug use, how do you react?
I can have five different reactions. The biggest thing for me lately is talking about Why these people will use. The OPCs have nearly 3,100 registered participants. We are working with existing users. We are doing everything we can to keep them alive. Once they tell us, at any point, that they want to stop, we respond immediately. We go into action immediately, so we have no way of triggering.
On average, how many people come to OnPoint a day?
If we are talking specifically about OPC, sometimes a few hundred. It changes. But if we’re talking about the entire organization, we’re going to see many, many more people than that.
When people come to OnPoint, what services do they usually look for?
When people enter the space, immediately, most of the people who visit are asking, “Wait a minute, where is the drug use?” The door opened, and they saw people drinking coffee, eating, watching movies. We serve up to five meals a day.
If someone comes in to use OPC, they’ll let them know, and if they’ve been with us before, we’ll log them in. We ask a bunch of questions before they come in: What will you use? How much? If you weren’t here, where would you use it? A large percentage of them will say they used it in the alley around the corner of their block, inside a restaurant bathroom or in a nearby park. These are important questions for us to report back to the community—we’ve had almost 70,000 drug use cases and therefore, 70,000 cases that don’t happen on the street.
What happens after drinking?
They enter the room, and they use. Again, this is a program in many arrays. We have case management, mental health, low threshold medical services, hepatitis testing and treatment, HIV testing and treatment. We are opening a pharmacy and that will serve not only our people but all members of the community. We have a holistic program that offers acupuncture, acupressure, some bodyweight exercises and sound therapy, and it’s also open to the community. We are opening a free barber shop and beauty salon.
