Prevention point, you know, they're saying that they are life-sustaining and they're compassionate and they're effective.
but they're not really showing that they're any more effective than if the people went outside the neighborhood to get the services.
But they're not really showing that they're any more effective than if the people went outside the neighborhood.
They're saying they're risking their own life.
However, they hire security to push all the addicts and the other people into the surrounding neighborhood.
I think their compassion is misguided, but they're also getting paid.
And this is just expanding the number of paid people that work at Prevention Point.
They're not working for free.
So what's happening here is a lot of people making money and not solving the problem.
So I suggest that in terms of the addiction people that are negatively affecting the community, I heard the council talk about how the residents and the owners of the businesses are negatively affected in the community, but these addicts are also negatively affected because they're allowed to perpetually stay in the neighborhood instead of getting out of the neighborhood for the services.
Perhaps that's something that really ought to be considered.
So if you're allowing more people to stay in the neighborhood where the drugs are, where the shootings are.
By the way, there was a murder right out in front of my business yesterday.
An addict got shot by his drug dealer.
Five seconds.
I watched it on my camera.
This is not compassionate.
This is not life-sustaining.
This is keeping people perpetually stuck in the system in Kensington.
If they were had to go outside of the neighborhood to get the services, they would be outside of the influence and maybe be more likely to stay out.
So, OK, Mr. Steinberg, thank you, Mr. Phillips. Do you have any questions?
Yeah, Mr. Steinberg, can you just please state your address for the record?
2861 Kensington Avenue.
um and is it uh your position that there should not be medical services provided at
uh 2813 kensington avenue i don't think they should be catering to the drug addicts
you call them homeless but they're drug addicts okay so the uh you are opposed to individuals
schools seeking medical services at 2813 Kensington Avenue.
I'm opposed to helping the drug addicts to perpetuate them staying in the neighborhood
as opposed to trying to get the services outside the neighborhood where they could be then
taken off the street or maybe more likely to stay out of here where it's unsafe.
I don't have any questions.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Steinberg.
Next hand, please.
Alexis Roth has been allowed to speak.
Morning, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, my name is Alexis Roth, R-O-T-H.
I am an associate professor.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am not a neighbor, although I do have a research office at 2917 Kensington Avenue
and one day a week at 3045 Kensington Avenue.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
Favor.
Can you give us any other reasons
that we haven't already heard?
Well, I think what I can do is extrapolate a little bit
from the individual opinions that have been expressed
and compliment them with what I know
is a public health researcher
who's been publishing and working in this space
for the last decade.
And so I can bring in some scientific evidence to support why it's so important to have multiple providers.
Why don't you start?
Sure. So first, I really appreciate the comments that have been made about community support and concerns for the services being provided at Prevention Point.
I would like to sort of counterbalance them by offering up that in 2019, my team and I published a paper where we did face to face interviews with 360 residents.
And 79 business owners or staff asking them about specialty overdose prevention services being provided in the neighborhood.
And 90% of residents and 63% of business owners were in favor of those services.
So this to say that there is also broad support in the neighborhood for people receiving addictions, treatment, naloxone, other kinds of services to address public health challenges at prevention point.
I'd also like to highlight that there's been an outbreak of HIV among folks who inject drugs in
the city since 2018 the city the city and the CDC have been working tirelessly on that since
they declared it and we've been doing research in this space since 2017 and I have an ongoing
large-scale intervention at prevention point now and what I can tell you that we hear resoundingly
And what I can tell you that we hear resoundingly from their clients over and over again is
from their clients over and over again.
that the care that they receive from Prevention Point staff and the fact that the medical
services are located with a place where they can get coffee, clothes, food, syringes, et
cetera, is absolutely what helps them onboard into this lifesaving care.
And as a sharp contradiction, what was just offered up, research actually shows that the
co-location of these services leads to better patient engagement outcomes. So having things
bundled up like at Walmart does much better than sending somebody outside of the neighborhood.
And the truth is, is this is where folks are living. And so it's important for them to be
able to have quality, accessible health care in their neighborhood. Thank you. Mr. Phillips,
if you have any questions. I would just ask Ms. Roth, can you please just state for the record
just your credentials again? Yes, it's Dr. Roth, and I am an associate professor of public health
at Drexel University in the School of Public Health in the Department of Community Health
and Prevention, and I do HIV and overdose-related research and have been doing so for more than a
decade. Thank you. No further questions. Next hand, please. Andrea McIntosh has been allowed
to speak. Hello. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Andrea McIntosh, A-N-D-R-E-A, McIntosh, M-C-I-N-T-O-S-H.
Where are you referring to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Are you a neighbor? I'm a homeowner.
Okay. Are you in favor of this project or against?
I'm in favor.
And is there anything that you could offer that's different than what we've already had?
I'm a PhD candidate researchers, and I've researched the neighborhood, so I can
lend my expertise in that area, but I can also talk to the neighborhood dynamics
after having lived in Kensington on and off for over 10 years.
Well, thank you very much.
But you're against it, am I correct?
No, I'm in favor.
Okay, you're in favor.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
Mr. Phillips?
Yeah, I would just like,
Ms. McIntosh stated that she could lend a perspective
as somebody who's lived off and out of the neighborhood
for a decade,
as well as a perspective
as somebody working in public health.
So I would just like to, you know, have the opportunity. Sure. Go ahead. Continue with your testimony.
Sure. I am a Ph.D. candidate researcher and I've done research in Kensington.
I have also worked in homeless services and Prevention Point is a place that I have been able to refer neighbors to.
um i can say based on my research that the amount of services in the neighborhood does not
decrease the amount of people on the street um the people who are on the street are in kensington
because of the drugs that are there they're not there because of the services that are provided
the services provided are actually providing relief um and making the conditions on the street
um not be as um extreme as they could be if the services weren't there um just repeating that
i whenever i have seen services um decreased in the neighborhood it has made the conditions on
the street worse and it has made it worse for the people that are living there to deal with
these conditions and as a homeowner in the neighborhood i am in strongly i'm strongly
supporting prevention point in this endeavor. Thank you very much for taking the time. Mr.
Phillips, do you have any questions? No further questions. Thank you. Next hand, please.
Joe Volsi has been allowed to speak. Please unmute yourself.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good morning. My name is Joel Volsi. That's J-O-E-L, V as in Victor, O-L-C as in cat, Y.
Where are we referring to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Sir, are you a neighbor?
No, I'm not.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
I'm speaking on behalf of Councilman Jim Harity, who is in opposition of this.
Sir, give us your testimony about why you're in opposition.
Councilmember Harrity, he's an at large member who lives in the neighborhood not too far from the location. He's also a recovery alcoholic, so he understands.
He is also a recovery alcoholic, so he understands what's going on in the minds of those who are dealing with addiction.
He cares about his neighbors and serves on council with Councilwoman Lozada, who is also the district council member.
He is in strong opposition of this because they are not very effective in this neighborhood.
There's a lot of needles that always remain on the ground and a lot of crowds that draw in bad neighbors and drug dealers.
So that therefore the councilman is in opposition of this variance.
Mr. Phillips, do you have any questions?
Yes. Mr. Bolte, can you please point to any specific negative impacts that are caused specifically by the increase in medical services at the property from one provider to multiple providers?
Hold on one second, please.
Mr. Volsi?
I'm sorry, I was getting the call.
can you just repeat the question, please? I was asking if you can please point to specific
negative impacts that you believe would be caused by increasing medical services from one provider
to multiple providers at the property. Well, we know that this provider does provide needle
exchanges, which also causes other issues such as drug dealers to come, as well as they
They cause other issues for the neighborhood and other issues that causes bad neighbors as well as it allows some of those suffering from SUD to pee and also cause other urinating issues for the commercial corridors.
So Prevention Point doesn't really provide services for those suffering from this addiction to have a solid place to get treatment and care.
Okay. And I just want to also make sure you're clear. Any syringe exchange or syringe program
is not at issue here. Those are not medical services that we are seeking. So again,
setting the issues with the syringe exchange aside, specifically for the medical services
being provided, that's what I'm seeking clarification on. What specific negative
impacts are caused by increasing the medical services? Well, the negative impacts will be
it's in a residential neighborhood and a commercial neighborhood where those medical services should
be provided on some type of medical campus that is not in a densely populated neighborhood where
other people can be affected by those medical treatments. Mr. Bolsey, are you aware that
solo practitioner medical services are permitted by right at the property?
Yes, I am aware.
So again, is it your belief that solo medical practitioner services should not be provided
at the property?
What the councilman believes is that this facility should be somewhere on a medical campus where
this medical treatment could be provided to help those, to help the people suffer from SUD.
But it shouldn't be in the area where many members of the community need those services.
That's correct. Okay, no further questions. Thank you. Next hand, and how many more hands do we have?
Chair, we have five more hands up, and William McElroy has been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name as spelled for the court stenographer?
William McElroy, M-C-E-L-R-O-Y.
We are affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Mr. McElroy, are you a neighbor?
I am not. I'm a landlord.
Mr. McElroy, are you in favor of this project or against?
I'm against it.
Is there anything you could offer that we haven't already heard?
Well, I'm going to use numbers from their own last fiscal report.
And my argument basically is they don't need another doctor based on their numbers from last year.
They do medically, medication-assisted opioid use disorder.
Medication-assisted opioid use disorder, that's sublucate and vivitrol.
that's subleucane and Vivitrol.
That's a once-a-month shot.
They had 671 patients, shots they gave out.
Divide that by 12.
That's 56 patients a month they saw for that sublucate and vivitrol.
That's two a day.
They do 829 wound care visits.
Divide that by 365.
That's two and a half patients a day that that doctor sees.
1,300 HIV visits. It didn't describe what an HIV visit is, but that's three and a half a day
by their math and 2,020, 34 unique participants. I don't know what that is, but let's say they're
also separate from the others. That's five and a half patients a day. So that, those three,
they're seeing 11, that doctor is seeing 11 patients a day and giving out two shots a day.
That's enough for just one doctor to do it. And it's bookended by Esperanza, a quarter mile
at one direction and Episcopal at the other. There's enough medical services and there's
enough business with 11 patients and two injections a day. All right. Thank you very
much, Mr. McElroy. Mr. Phillips, do you have any questions? Mr. McElroy, can you please
uh set forth your address for the record what do i own in kensington yes you said you're a homeowner
in the or a landlord in the area 3146 reach street 3146 reach reach street okay um and are you
aware right now that there are multiple medical providers that have been uh providing services
at prevention point? Well, I know you're entitled to at least one, and I think his last name starts
with C when I looked at the tax return. And these are your numbers. And Mr. McElroy, were you at the
prior hearing in this matter? No, I was trying to follow it. I know it was listed on two prior
occasions, and I guess I missed it. So you did not hear the testimony of the multiple medical
providers who are currently servicing clientele and working at Prevention Point? I did not. I
merely took your report and I'm citing from it. And those are the number of patients that you see
according to your staff that prepared that report. 11 patients a day on average and two shots.