Philly.com<\/a> | Nov. 1, 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\nBy Aubrey Whelan<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Kensington, everyone can agree on one thing: The neighborhood in Philadelphia\u2019s river wards needs to be cleaned \u2014 of the mattresses, the tents, the piles of garbage, the discarded needles along Kensington Avenue and the surrounding blocks, the detritus of an opioid crisis that pushed city officials to declare a disaster there last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even as officials launched a large-scale cleanup along the avenue Thursday, they acknowledged that the crisis in Kensington can\u2019t be fixed by broom-wielding volunteers and city staffers.
\u201cToday\u2019s event won\u2019t solve the litter problem or the discarded needles,\u201d said Brian Abernathy, the city\u2019s first deputy managing director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he told reporters that the cleanup \u2014 one of a few dozen goals for the neighborhood that the city had promised to accomplish before Nov. 15 as part of the disaster declaration \u2014 served a symbolic purpose, too. Officials hope it will show this long-neglected neighborhood that the city is serious about addressing its latest and largest crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The disaster declaration is laying bare tensions over the central dispute in helping Kensington \u2014 namely, that not everyone agrees on how to do it. Even as she praised city officials for \u201cnot only working hard, but working smart in an intentional way,\u201d Councilwoman Maria Qui\u00f1ones-S\u00e1nchez, who represents much of the community, told reporters that the neighborhood \u201ccannot take any more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city has promised to find a location for a new \u201cnavigation center\u201d \u2014 a short-term shelter that does not require sobriety and is designed to house people with addiction \u2014 within the next two weeks, as it prepares to clear a heroin encampment on Frankford Avenue. There\u2019s already one navigation center in the neighborhood, not far from the Allegheny El station, where the cleanup crews met on Thursday, and another low-barrier shelter near the city\u2019s only needle exchange, also in Kensington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abernathy said the navigation center must be convenient to people in addiction, who often balk at leaving the neighborhood where they can most easily find drugs to stave off the intense pain of withdrawal. \u201cWe won\u2019t be successful in getting folks off the street without [the center]. That is one of the most important efforts we have, but also one we have the most questions about,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re confident we\u2019re going to find a site for it that is workable for everyone involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Qui\u00f1ones-S\u00e1nchez says the neighborhood has hosted enough services for those in addiction, many of whom are not from the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI will not allow them to put another [navigation center] in this neighborhood,\u201d Qui\u00f1ones-S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cKensington has been sympathetic. Kensington residents have been patient. Pero no mas.\u201d \u201cBut no more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As cleaning crews picked up needles in McPherson Square Park, raked trash out of vacant lots and gave abandoned storefronts on the avenue a fresh coat of paint, residents said the cleaning was welcome \u2014 and long overdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe cleanup is fine, but this area needs more than cleaning up. You see people on mattresses, sleeping. You see people getting their fixes in the neck. Sweeping and mopping is not going to fix that,\u201d said Iris Hernandez, 44. \u201cIt would be nice to walk out of your house with nothing to worry about \u2014 no needles, no overdoses.\u201d She has lived near McPherson Square for 15 years, and said she helped reverse two overdoses on her block this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the park, Elvis Rosado, an outreach worker at the local needle exchange who also lives in the neighborhood and has reversed dozens of overdoses, picked through the grass with a box to collect used syringes. \u201cIt\u2019s necessary \u2014 I just think too many people have locked themselves in and feel like whatever happens outside is none of their business,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re reminding you your community is still worth something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around the corner from the Somerset El station, where a crew of workers was painting vacant storefronts, Daniel Hinkie and a friend sat with a few other people in active addiction, surrounded by piles of clothing, suitcases, and cardboard mattresses. Both were born and raised in Kensington; the friend, 31, who\u2019s been addicted for four years and on the streets for two, still has family in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re only doing this because the mayor\u2019s coming out,\u201d said Hinkie. He said he believed the city only started to pay attention to the crisis in his neighborhood when people from outside Kensington started going there. \u201cBut the cleanup is a good thing,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cThe neighborhood needed it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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