In a country that grows hostile to drugs and homelessness, Los Angeles is trying to indulge

Angela Hart

Los Angeles-inside a bright new building in the heart of Skid Row, the homeless hung in an umbrella-covered courtyard-some wait for bathing, washing, or obtaining a drug to treat addiction. Others relaxed the oppressed grass and accused their phones as a more crowded housing line.

The Skid Row Care campus was officially opened this spring with wide offers for people living in the streets of this historically troubled neighborhood. Puritan fruit and tents camps were lined up on the sidewalks, as well as merchants wandering in methyl and fentianil in outdoor drug markets. Some people, sick or involved, were passed on the sidewalks while the pedestrians were wandering in the last day of the last day.

For those who work towards sobriety, there are doctors on the site to provide mental health and addiction treatment. The first Methadon clinic is scheduled to open at Skid Row here this year. For those who are not ready to stop drugs or alcohol, the campus provides a clean width for shooting more safely, glass pipes for smoking drugs, and naluxon to prevent overdoses, and drug test ribbons to detect fentanel pollution, among other supplies.

Since many Americans have grown increasingly from the displacement in the streets, cities and countries have returned to the difficult approach that punish people to live abroad and drug abuse disorders. But the SKID ROW facility shows the embrace of Los Angeles Provincial leaders of the principle of damage to the damage, which is a group of the most lenient strategies that can include helping people more safely, because they contradict a number of homeless population About 75000 Within Elderly From any boycott in the nation. Evidence shows This approach can help individuals enter treatment, gain sobriety, and end the displacement, while addiction experts and provincial health officials note that it has an additional benefit represented in improving public health.

“We are really getting bad rap music for this, but this is the safest way to use drugs,” said Darren Willet, director of the damage center on the new Skid Row Care campus. “It is a strategy to prevent excess dose, and prevents the spread of infectious diseases.”

Although to retreat In the case of excess dose deaths, drug and alcohol use is still The main cause of death Between the homeless in the province. They live in the streets or harsh camps, displaced people record the health care system with high costs of unequal care, emergency room trips, hospital hospitalization for internal patients, and for many, their deaths. Its advocates say that reducing the damage provides the displaced people with the opportunity to obtain jobs, housing -backed by taxpayers, health care, and other social services without forcing drugs. However, it was strongly discussed.

Politicians all over the country, including Gavin New Ruler In California, it is frequented by the adoption of damage techniques, such as the exchanging needle or places subject to the use of drugs, partly because the public can be seen as an unlawful behavior. Although Democrats are more supportive than Republicans, A national poll This year it found lukewarm support across the political spectrum of such interventions.

Los Angeles challenges President Donald Trump’s agenda as he calls Forced mental health and addiction treatment For people who have no shelter – and lock those who refuse. The city was also a major protest scene against the Trump immigration campaign, which fought the president by deploying the National Guard and Marines.

Trump Most detailed notes Regarding the displacement and the disorder of drug use during his campaign, when people who used drugs were attacked as criminals and said that people who have no shelter “have no right to convert every garden and sidewalks into a place for them to squat and deal with drugs.” The Minister of Health and Humanitarian Services has strengthened Robert F. Kennedy Junior Trump’s focus on treatment.

“Secretary Kennedy stands with President Trump in giving priority to solutions that focus on recovery to address addiction and homelessness,” said agency spokeswoman Viaca Rodriguez Villaciano. “HHS still focuses on helping individuals recover, recover, and help to make our cities clean, safe and healthy again.”

A A comprehensive report Under Margot Kushil, a professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco, it was found this year that nearly half of a homeless population in California have a complex, healthy behavioral need, was defined as a regular drug use, a large drinking, hallucinations, or in the new psychological hospital.

She said that the chaos of living abroad – is characterized by violence, sexual assault, cores, lack of housing and health care – can make it almost impossible to get sober.

Campus for SKID Row

The new care campus is funded by about 26 million dollars annually in the homeless and state healthcare funds, and the initial construction has been completed by the owner of Skid Row, Matt Li, who improved on the site on his own, according to Anna Gourman, Executive Director of Operations in Community Programs in Los Angeles in health services. The operators say that the campus should be able to withstand potential federal spending cuts because it is funded by a variety of sources.

The glass front doors lead to the atrium inside the yellow and orange complex. It is designed with inputs from the homeless, who advised the boycott not only on the design but also on the services provided on the site. There are 22 beds for recovery and 48 additional beds for older homeless people, art and wellness programs, dining store, and pet care. Even rabbits and snakes are allowed.

John Wright, 65, who goes with the slim title, mixed with the homeless visitors on the afternoon in May, and asking them what they need to be safe and comfortable.

“Everyone thinks that we are criminals, like us, we are out of everyone, but we are not so,” said Wright, who works as a specialist in the campus. “I am homeless and I am addicted to drugs, but I am now in the metadon, so I am working on it,” he said.

Near Skid Row, Anthony Willis rested on his wheelchair while taking toke from the crack tube. He said he just learned about the new campus of care, explaining that he was homeless for about 20 years before entering an apartment for taxpayers on Skid Row. He spends most of his days and nights in the streets, using drugs and alcohol.

He said that drugs help him stay awake so that he can provide companionship and sometimes physical protection for homeless friends who have no housing. “It is sometimes difficult to live here, and for this reason the relapse remains,” said Willis, who was 62 years old, suffering from asthma and gossip. “But it is also my community.”

Willis said that the campus of care could be a place to help him kick drugs, but he was not sure he was ready.

Brian Hurley, a psychiatrist and medical director of the Drug Control Office at the Ministry of Public Health in Los Angeles Province, said research indicates that reducing damage helps prevent death and can build a long -term recovery for people who use materials. Technologies allow health care providers and social services workers to meet people when they are ready to stop using drugs or enter treatment.

“Recovery is an educational activity, and reality is a relapse is part of healing,” he said. “People go back and forth, and sometimes it is run or did not discover how to deal with pressure.”

Impact public opinion

In light of the principles of damage to damage, officials admit that people will use drugs. Funding from taxpayers, the government provides services to use them safely, instead of forcing people to quit smoking or request to refrain from sex in exchange for government -backed housing and treatment programs.

Los Angeles province is required Hundreds of millions to Fighting homelessnessDuring the launch of several years “By Los AngelesA campaign to build public support, combat stigma, and encourage people to use services and request treatment. Officials have appointed a non -profit institution, Biological strategiesTo conduct a campaign, including advertising on social media and advertising plates to enhance the expansion of all of the treatment services and damage to people who use drugs.

The organization led a citizen Campaign to reduce damage It works on the protection of excess dose and general health in Seven states Using nearly $ 70 million donated by Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York.

“We do not believe that people should die just because they use drugs, so we will provide support in any possible way,” said Choshna, a researcher, director of damage to the Ministry of Health in Los Angeles Province. “In the end, some people may come to treatment, but what we really want is to prevent excess dose and save lives.”

Los Angeles also finds herself at odds with the Democratic Governor of California. Newsom has led more stringent laws aimed at homelessness and addiction and supported treatment requirements for people with mental illness or who use drugs. Last year, California voters Certified proposal 36Which allows a felony charge of some drug crimes, requires the courts to warn persons who can be charged with killing to sell or provide illegal drugs that kill someone, and facilitate treatment for treatment for people who use drugs.

Even San Francisco agreed to conduct last year requires social welfare recipients participating in treatment to continue receiving cash aid. Mayor Daniel Lori recently ordered city officials to stop distributing free drug supplies, including Pipes and chipsInstead, a request to participate in the treatment of drugs to receive services. Lori signed a recovery decree first, which gives priority.Long -term remission“From the use of materials, and the city as well Police expansion While financing new sites for living and treatment centers for people who recover from addiction.

“Hins encouragement”

Senator Roger Niello, a Republican representing the outskirts of a province outside Sacramento, says the state needs to improve the lives of the homeless through the most striking drug policies. He argues that providing medicine supplies or providing housing without authorization to enter treatment, enables homeless people to stay in the streets.

He said that the 36 proposal must be implemented strongly, and people who have no shelter should be asked to enter the treatment in exchange for housing.

“I think about it as a difficult love,” Nilo said. “What Los Angeles does, and I would like to call it damage. They encourage harm by continuing to feed usually, in full frankness, killing people.”

Keith Humphrez, who worked in his administration George W. Bush and Barack Obama and A pioneer in reducing damage Practices throughout the country said that societies must find a balance between leniency and law enforcement.

He said: “Parents should be able to walk their children to the park without being shocked. You must be able to have a business without being stolen.” “Reducing harm and treatment for them is a place, and we also need to prevent and focus on public safety.”

Outside the Skid Row Care campus, Cindy Ashley organized her property in a vehicle after she recently left a local hospital for a deep skin injury on her hand and her arm from shooting at heroin. She smokes regularly.

She was searching feverish for a house so that she could recover from two surgeries for the infection. I learned about the new care campus and rushed to get her name on the housing waiting list.

“I will not take it out here,” she said.

This article was produced by KFF Health NewsWhich is published California HealthyinIndependent editorial service for California Health Care Corporation.

KFF Health News It is a national news room that produces in-depth press on health issues and is one of the basic operating programs in KFF-independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.