The afternoon before Thanksgiving, David Terry stood outside OnPoint NYC’s East Harlem safe-injection site, thinking about a friend who had recently died of an overdose. Later that week, he would attend their funeral.
For the 60-year-old Terry, a poet and member of New York Harm Reduction Educators, having access to a harm reduction service is deeply personal.
“Many, many people come from the Bronx over here because they can use safely,” said Terry, who relies on the East Harlem service himself. He pointed out that its range of services makes the commute worthwhile for residents of the Bronx, where the rate of fatal overdoses is the highest of the five boroughs.
But local harm reduction advocates say the city allocates less money to the Bronx from opioid settlement funds than the other boroughs.
