Steven Pradia
Neighbors complain about heroin rehab
Small area hosts eight methadone clinics
By Steven Pradia
stevenpradia@hotmail.com
Small area hosts eight methadone clinics
By Steven Pradia
stevenpradia@hotmail.com
Homeless men and women drift along both sides of East 149th Street and
Southern Boulevard. Half the buildings on the block are abandoned. The
residents of the rest are nowhere in sight. On a recent Thursday afternoon,
the only people around were those who had set up camp on the doorsteps
of boarded up buildings.
The source of the influx of homeless can be found just a few blocks away at
the Hunts Point Multi-Service Program Center Inc. Methadone Treatment
Center at 630 Jackson Avenue. When they leave the rehabilitation center,
many of the clients drift back to the stoops of the abandoned homes.
Methadone has been used for 30 years to treat heroin addiction, but
methadone clinics are controversial. Many residents who live in their vicinity
say that they attract vagrants and criminals. They complain that a
disproportionate number are located in poor communities, while wealthier
neighborhoods use their political clout to keep them out.
"I can't stand them," said Hunts Point Resident Gung Chang, from behind
the counter of the deli where he works on 156th Street and Southern
Boulevard. "Those in treatment hang around the clinic the way addicts hang
around the drug houses." he said.
The Hunts Point Multi-Service Program Center is shouldered by nearby
Bronx Lebanon Hospital, whose Fulton Division houses a Methadone facility;
and, Lincoln Hospital which also sponsors Methadone use. Of the 14
methadone clinics in the Bronx, four are in Hunts Point and Longwood and
another four are in nearby Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose and Morrisania.
That's where the addicts are, argue defenders of the programs, who point
out that these communities were ravaged by a scourge of drugs in the
recent past. But others wonder whether the image of the Bronx as a
borough of poverty and crime accounts for the concentration of facilities
many people don't want in the neighborhoods of the South Bronx.
"Just two years ago, they put three new clinics in the same spot on 138th
Street. Those clinics were moved from around 148th Street," said Jose
Padilla, a Morrisania resident. "Why does it seem that all the rehabs are in
my neighborhood?"
Neighborhood opposition has limited the number of clinics opened in the
last 20 years in New York City to a handful. "Williamsburg has been
gentrified. The Lower East Side has been gentrified, even parts of Harlem,"
said Juan Jiminez, who works in a convenience store in Hunts Point on
Lafayette Avenue and Manida Street. "It is time for the South Bronx to
have the same chance. If the city's scum are attracted here 'cause we have
the cheapest and easiest dope legal or illegal the neighborhood will never
amount to much."
There are more than 40,000 methadone patients in New York, more than
anywhere else in the United States. For the most part, their treatment is
paid for by Medicaid, the state-run program that pays for medical care for
those who can not afford it. Nearly 30 percent of the city's methadone
treatment facilities are for profit, with the rest run by hospitals or by private
non-profit clinics like the Hunts Point Multi Service Program.
Doctors around the city have argued about the use of methadone for years.
Most believe, however, that when properly administered to ex-users,
methadone works. Dr. Eric J. Simon of New York University Medical Center,
who has written widely on the subject says "50% to 70% of addicts who stay
in the program return to useful employment or education."
In addition to complaining that clients of methadone clinics loiter around
their homes, some opponents of the programs argue, as Rudolph Giuliani
did when he was mayor, that the drug simply substitutes one form of
addiction for another. They cite the sale of methadone on the black
market, including a lively trade by those who are supposed to be using it to
rehab using it to acquire the illegal drugs they truly desire.
But people who work in drug rehabilitation programs argue that that's just
why the clinics are necessary. "Doctors don't carry methadone because by
law they aren't allowed to," explained Amadou Dwele, a clerk at the Hunts
Point Multi Service Clinic. "With our security and facility we're deemed safe
to keep methadone in the right hands for the right purposes," he said.
Southern Boulevard. Half the buildings on the block are abandoned. The
residents of the rest are nowhere in sight. On a recent Thursday afternoon,
the only people around were those who had set up camp on the doorsteps
of boarded up buildings.
The source of the influx of homeless can be found just a few blocks away at
the Hunts Point Multi-Service Program Center Inc. Methadone Treatment
Center at 630 Jackson Avenue. When they leave the rehabilitation center,
many of the clients drift back to the stoops of the abandoned homes.
Methadone has been used for 30 years to treat heroin addiction, but
methadone clinics are controversial. Many residents who live in their vicinity
say that they attract vagrants and criminals. They complain that a
disproportionate number are located in poor communities, while wealthier
neighborhoods use their political clout to keep them out.
"I can't stand them," said Hunts Point Resident Gung Chang, from behind
the counter of the deli where he works on 156th Street and Southern
Boulevard. "Those in treatment hang around the clinic the way addicts hang
around the drug houses." he said.
The Hunts Point Multi-Service Program Center is shouldered by nearby
Bronx Lebanon Hospital, whose Fulton Division houses a Methadone facility;
and, Lincoln Hospital which also sponsors Methadone use. Of the 14
methadone clinics in the Bronx, four are in Hunts Point and Longwood and
another four are in nearby Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose and Morrisania.
That's where the addicts are, argue defenders of the programs, who point
out that these communities were ravaged by a scourge of drugs in the
recent past. But others wonder whether the image of the Bronx as a
borough of poverty and crime accounts for the concentration of facilities
many people don't want in the neighborhoods of the South Bronx.
"Just two years ago, they put three new clinics in the same spot on 138th
Street. Those clinics were moved from around 148th Street," said Jose
Padilla, a Morrisania resident. "Why does it seem that all the rehabs are in
my neighborhood?"
Neighborhood opposition has limited the number of clinics opened in the
last 20 years in New York City to a handful. "Williamsburg has been
gentrified. The Lower East Side has been gentrified, even parts of Harlem,"
said Juan Jiminez, who works in a convenience store in Hunts Point on
Lafayette Avenue and Manida Street. "It is time for the South Bronx to
have the same chance. If the city's scum are attracted here 'cause we have
the cheapest and easiest dope legal or illegal the neighborhood will never
amount to much."
There are more than 40,000 methadone patients in New York, more than
anywhere else in the United States. For the most part, their treatment is
paid for by Medicaid, the state-run program that pays for medical care for
those who can not afford it. Nearly 30 percent of the city's methadone
treatment facilities are for profit, with the rest run by hospitals or by private
non-profit clinics like the Hunts Point Multi Service Program.
Doctors around the city have argued about the use of methadone for years.
Most believe, however, that when properly administered to ex-users,
methadone works. Dr. Eric J. Simon of New York University Medical Center,
who has written widely on the subject says "50% to 70% of addicts who stay
in the program return to useful employment or education."
In addition to complaining that clients of methadone clinics loiter around
their homes, some opponents of the programs argue, as Rudolph Giuliani
did when he was mayor, that the drug simply substitutes one form of
addiction for another. They cite the sale of methadone on the black
market, including a lively trade by those who are supposed to be using it to
rehab using it to acquire the illegal drugs they truly desire.
But people who work in drug rehabilitation programs argue that that's just
why the clinics are necessary. "Doctors don't carry methadone because by
law they aren't allowed to," explained Amadou Dwele, a clerk at the Hunts
Point Multi Service Clinic. "With our security and facility we're deemed safe
to keep methadone in the right hands for the right purposes," he said.
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