At 3 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, the drop-in center at New York Harm Reduction Educators’ East Harlem site was bustling. A few people lingered at the back of the room, asking a staffer when it would be their turn to go into a closed-off area where they could use drugs such as heroin or cocaine under staff supervision. Others were hanging out watching TV, socializing or getting some rest on one of the plush yellow chairs that lined the space.
“This is people’s living room. We work with a lot of people who are street-entrenched and homeless and don’t have any place to be,” said Kailin See, senior director of programs at OnPoint NYC. The nonprofit recently gained national attention for opening the country’s first two overdose prevention centers – one here in Harlem and another at the Corner Project in Washington Heights.
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