West Park Avenue looks like an idyllic Columbus street: A-tree lined boulevard cuts through the middle, and every house has a porch and a small front yard.
But looking closer, it鈥檚 clear the neighborhood has been hit by the opioid crisis. A few houses are boarded up, and orange caps from syringes litter the sidewalk.
Vicky is just getting home from picking her kids up at school. Children spill out of the back seat of her minivan, and she shoos them into her house.
鈥淚 just lost my best friend four months ago, her husband died last night, my husband is in recovery, my niece was murdered over these drugs,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 just 鈥� the dealers need to die. I don鈥檛 care. I hate it. I hate it.鈥�
WOSU is not using Vicky鈥檚 last name to protect her and her family鈥檚 privacy.
鈥淚 hate the drugs,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 grew up down here, I don鈥檛 want to leave the area because this is where I was born and raised, but I don鈥檛 want to be here anymore.鈥�
Vicky looks around at the vacant houses, exasperated.
鈥淚t鈥檚 everywhere. It鈥檚 every other house on this block is drugs. It鈥檚 right in our faces. He鈥檚 trying to get clean, it鈥檚 right in his face,鈥� she says, gesturing inside at her husband.
Vicky says the neighborhood had enough to deal with before the city鈥檚 only needle exchange program moved to just a block away. The program, , relocated from the Short North earlier this year.
Now she worries it will bring in more drugs, and people who use them.
鈥淲ell we already have drug users in the neighborhood, so I mean in all reality, I guess they need something,鈥� says Vicky鈥檚 neighbor Dan Collins. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to see a bunch of people get a bunch of AIDs and stuff like that.鈥�
Safe Point moved to Franklinton because it has one of the highest overdose death rates in the city.
鈥淚n Franklinton and in the West Side, people see it a lot more and a lot of their families are affected, a lot of people they know are affected,鈥� says Dwayne Steward of Equitas Health, which runs the needle exchange program. 鈥淧eople I think were a lot less hesitant because this is something that is really affected their community and they saw us trying to come in and help.鈥�
Safe Point has been around for three years, with a goal of helping .
The new building at 1267 Broad Street is the program鈥檚 first dedicated space. Before, the program operated out of the Equitas Medical Center in the Short North. Steward says there wasn鈥檛 enough space at their previous location to meet demand.
鈥淲hen we opened, our doors immediately, the flood gates kind of opened,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd we were seeing lines out the door of people who really needed our services.鈥�
Every day, 4,300 people use injectable drugs in Columbus, according to the city's Public Health department.
The new, larger space has allowed Safe Point to transition from being just a needle exchange program to a more comprehensive harm reduction center. They hired additional staff, including a health navigator to help link people to treatment.
Safe Point also expanded their hours of operation from two days a week to four, nearly doubling the number of people they can see.
鈥淲e have to have a cap, actually, for the number of people that we see because of the epidemic being like it is,鈥� Steward says. 鈥淪o we have a cap at 60 people per day and we鈥檙e hitting that cap every day for the four days that we鈥檙e open.鈥�
The move has made some people who utilize the program feel more comfortable coming in. Christopher, whose last name we're not using to protect his privacy, says that when he visited the Short North location he felt judged and unwelcome.
鈥淭he general sentiment of the people in the area 鈥� which I mean, the Short North might kind of have that attitude.鈥� Christopher says. 鈥淗ere, I feel like it鈥檚 really needed here in this area.鈥�
Since the move, Safe Point workers say they鈥檝e seen old faces from the Short North and new faces from the West Side. They hope that by moving into the heart of the neighborhood hit hardest by opioids, they can meet people who need the program closer to home.
