On August 24th, 2021, Housing Works authored and delivered a letter to newly sworn-in Governor Kathy Hochul, calling upon her to act swiftly and authorize a two-year overdose prevention center (OPC) pilot program across five locations in New York State. 61 community and faith-based organizations and nearly 200 individuals signed. The proposed overdose prevention center pilot program would enable five existing community-based Syringe Exchange Programs (four in New York City and one in Ithaca) to expand their services to include supervised consumption services. This pilot would be regulated and supervised by the NYS Department of Health’s AIDS Institute with rigorous evaluation by NYU researchers.

You can help by calling Governor Hochul’s office at 1-518-474-8390 and asking her to authorize overdose prevention centers today. You can say something like:

<<My name is _________________ and I am calling to urge Governor Hochul to respond to the recent letter from Housing Works and over 250 signees and authorize the overdose prevention center pilot program in New York State. Throughout the pandemic, roughly 5,100 New Yorkers statewide died of overdoses. The disruption to daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic has hit people who use drugs hard, increasing isolation and despair and disconnecting people from healthcare, supportive services and community. Overdose prevention centers are a proven healthcare intervention that can improve and save the lives of thousands of New Yorkers who use drugs.>>

According to CDC data, roughly 5,100 New Yorkers statewide died from preventable overdose in 2020 as did over 93,000 people in the United States, making 2020 the worst year for overdose deaths on record. The worst part of this is overdose is a wholly preventable cause of death. Overdose prevention centers are an effective and cost-effective intervention that provides safe, clean spaces where individuals can safely inject or otherwise use pre-obtained drugs with sterile equipment while also gaining access, onsite or by referral, to routine health, mental health, drug treatment and other social services.

There are approximately 120 overdose prevention centers around the world, and numerous studies have shown OPCs to increase substance use disorder treatment, reduce public disorder and public injection, reduce HIV and Hep C risk behaviors, reduce incidence of bacterial infections, significantly reduce incidence of overdose and increase reversal of overdose, as well as increase substance user education and access to medical and social services.

In 2018, we believed then-Governor Cuomo would finally sign off on the pilot program, but he walked away from us, and left that many more New Yorkers to struggle with substance use on their own, and many of them to die. We are calling upon Governor Hochul to help us mark a new chapter in the fight to end the overdose crisis in New York State, and we hope you will support us as we advocate until OPCs come to New York, at last.