Debra Jeffries-Glass
One thing that you would like for this park?
One thing that would help you in your work?
Brian Crozier
One thing that we would like assistance with is public support for an overdose prevention center. There’s two overdose prevention centers in Uptown New York: one in Harlem, and one in Washington Heights. For anyone that we know who we work with at our program, at our program, or in the street, no one is traveling that far to do what they got to do. We need them more localized.
That might seem a little bit abrasive to some. I’m happy to talk to you all when we’re getting to know each other. I’m happy to have the conversation with everybody. One thing we need is an overdose prevention center. If there’s concern with public drug use, problematic drug use, et cetera, this is a safe, supervised area. Not a single person has died from an overdose inside an overdose prevention center. It can help peoples in the park no matter what, regardless of their concern. So, putting that out there, thank you.
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Noel Sierra & Jake Leibovitz One thing that I think would be immensely helpful is there’s many drop-in centers currently in the area dedicated to different tasks, different programs, different populations. But at least when it comes to our work within the Department of Homeless Services universe, the only drop-in center in the area is on 14th Street.
And I think that’s a really good idea.
And there’s absolutely nothing below that. All the rest of the drop-in centers in Manhattan, of which there are a very small number, frankly, are even further away for the folks that we work with. And as Jeff was talking about earlier, beds are scarce.
We do our best to help somebody the same day get into a placement that they feel comfortable and safe and good with. But when we can’t, what we can offer is the mainstream shelter system, or someone can take themselves to a drop-in center, and most people choose the drop-in center. But we have to tell people, okay, you gotta get yourself to 14th Street, and it’s slam there.
So I would say a drop-in center in this area within our sort of universe to be better able to serve this community and get people plugged into services.
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Jeff Cohen The one thing I would like for the park to do is to continue what you do. Consistency. Every day. Where I can turn to somebody if I need something. That’s been the big thing for me.
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Mason Crawford For me, it would be like a knowledge and awareness, knowing where places are and who can go where. That would be mine. For anyone in the park, just to know, all right, this program’s this many blocks away. You know, you can get there right now and they can meet you with this need.
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Marcellus Valentin Just to add on to [“continue what you do, consistency, turning to somebody if I need something”]. I think just having what you guys were talking about before in terms of that would be great for the park and for all of us to come together to do this work.
For me, what keeps me going in this work is just being able to serve the community that raised me and being able to see the humanity and dignity in someone being reconfirmed in them, when they’re feeling like they’re nothing. You can ask me anything. Hopefully, I have an answer.
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Wei Tchou I would just echo everyone who’s talking about alliances, and maybe also a bridge between the Western communities and the Fujianese communities. That’s something that I think is missing.
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Carol Prudhomme DavisI would like to be able to get more involved with the gardening that is happening. I remember hearing K talk about planting indigenous food. I’d like to get involved with the community of our asylum seekers and our unhoused being more involved in the gardening and taking ownership where they can actually feel like it’s a co-op and they can have food from the garden.