New Haven’s kiosk model with Gar Waterman design.
Fewer people will step on needles. Fewer kids will be picking them up. And drug users may find a phone number to get life-saving help to save their lives.
That’s the idea behind a plan to bring secure syringe disposal kiosks to New Haven streets.
Modeled on ones currently used in New York, the kiosks will at first be rolled out at three locations with chronic drug-dealing histories: at Grand and Ferry in Fair Haven; and at Howard and Minor and at Congress and Daggett in the Hill.
Bob Lawlor and ChristineRodriguez Ocasio from the city’s Harm Reduction Task Force revealed that plan in a presentation at the monthly Zoom-assisted meeting of the Fair Haven Community Management team
The forty attendees heard the presentation about the kiosks and viewed the New Haven designed modified by Westville artist Gar Waterman.
The harm reduction task force, an AIDS-era city entity reactivated in response to the opioid epidemic, work to help address substance abuse through non-policing methods, such as distributing Narcan kits and clean needles. The approach, embodied in the introduction of the kiosks, views drug addiction as a public-health issue rather than a criminal-justice issue.
New York “daisy” model.
Click here for a previous article on Rodriguez Ocasio’s appointment in 2020, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, to coordinate the city’s overdose prevention efforts.
Rodriguez Ocasio said that the city’s still working on final details about the kiosks, such as who will own them. The city received a $12,000 anonymous donation for the project.
“Folks have seen success” with the kiosks in other cities, “pulling in tons of syringes,” Rodriguez Ocasio earlier told the Fair Haven Management Team members. Those “who use drugs aren’t trying to purposefully discard them, so we’re trying to provide a safe place. It’s been successful. We’re hoping to see the same in New Haven.”.
Lawlor said he and Rodriguez Ocasio along with representatives from the police and fire departments, the Sex Workers and Allies Network (SWAN) and other interested groups surveyed the city and located the areas with the most need for a syringe disposal kiosk.
Those turned out to be the two Hill corners as well as behind the McDonald’s just south of Grand Avenue on Ferry. Lawlor said the kiosk is to be placed behind the fast food eatery near the small parking area and mall at the corner. A fourth kiosk is to be placed at as-yet-to-be-determined location.
Lawlor said another goal is to help remove stigma or other barriers to people seeking help.
In the brief discussion following the presentation, neighbors praised the idea. They asked where else the kiosks have been deployed and if there is anything unique about the New Haven model.
The presenters loaded a long list of states where the kiosks have been in use for years into the chat box for neighbors to read. The “daisy” model, with three disposal petals or apertures, is in use in New York and is being modified by Gar Waterman’s suggested Elm-like changes.
“The bottom box will house a biohazard bin to collect deposited syringes, being disposed of by the Yale Community Healthcare Van syringe services team,” Rodriguez Ocasio later clarified in an email message. “We do anticipate they’d be bolted into the concrete. They are inspired by New York’s daisy design, but have been modified by Gar Waterman’s design to reflect a New Haven Elm. The majority of models we’ve seen look more like standard garbage cans or revamped mailboxes, so we’ve followed the daisy design with city aesthetics in mind.”