City of Eureka Opposes HACHR’s Re-authorization
Still from a video made by POP.
Press release from the City of Eureka:
On October 8, 2018, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) authorized the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction’s Syringe Exchange Program (SEP) in Eureka, California for a two-year period. The CDPH is now deciding whether to reauthorize HACHR’s SEP in Eureka. The CDPH asked the City of Eureka to provide input on the re-authorization process.
On August 7, 2020, the City of Eureka submitted a letter and memorandum in opposition to HACHR’s application for reauthorization. The City of Eureka is in favor of SEPs that comply with the letter and intent of the law, as evidenced by the City Council’s Resolution in Support of HACHR in 2016. However, the City cannot support the SEP as operated by HACHR at this time.
The City’s opposition is based on its investigation into ongoing concerns about HACHR’s operations at its 3rd Street location. Based on neighbors’ complaints, the Eureka Police Department launched a fact-finding investigation, the details of which were forwarded to the CDPH and are linked to this release.
Years of effort by the City and the community to work with HACHR have been ineffective. It is the City’s stance that HACHR has not, in good faith, responded to the community’s legitimate concerns about HACHR’s operations, and that HACHR’s SEP is not operating in compliance with state and local law. The City of Eureka’s letter and memorandum in opposition to HACHR’s SEP reauthorization can be found here.
Additional information will be released by the City Attorney as it becomes available.
UPDATE: HACHR Responds to City of Eureka’s Letter of Opposition to Their Re-authorization
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This makes me angry. Cornelius Loewenstein went to City Council meetings for years to complain about HACHR regarding what was going on there. He was ignored. He was treated like crap by City Council members and his name was sullied vocally and loudly by council members. He even had Kim Bergel attempt to silence him and get a restraining order against him for trying to get the Council to listen. Kim Bergel admitted in court that she really didn’t have any threatening info on Cornelius and she had basically lied. This man lost his business and his reputation because of the Councils inaction regarding HACHR. Well look now. He was right. All along he was right. Shame on you Eureka City Council members! You should all be held liable for his loss of business and your continued bad mouthing of him publicly. Defamation, slander! You all were complicit in this. You all deserve to suffer the consequences for your inaction.
dude you smoked hella weed in your business when you were on 2nd and had to move because every business around you complained. it seems you are aware that Eureka has a drug problem. nothing is going to change that. soon we will have a HIV problem.
Um . . . the businesses never complained about him. He actually helped them. The women were sad when he left and he actually left and moved to help his dying friend.
Smoking pot? Who cares ? Stop spreading lies.
spoken like a true self centered German. “The women”? due you moved your business a block and a half and that’s when it all started to fall apart for you. hate brings hate. its not like the needle exchange which started in 2017 was the mechanism for your issue.
good, shut it down. this attracts and coddles lowlifes.
As a member of the community, I’m rather opposed to HACHR’s existence.
I posted about a month ago about a quick walk down broadway. I’ll paste it again here:
I recently took a walk down Broadway, from 5th to Harris. I saw:
1 complete syringe, capped. on top of a rock by a bus stop.
4 disassembled syringes or collections of syringe parts.
1 short, fat syringe.
3 syringes that had been flattened by traffic.
11 orange caps. Some were loose, some were probably attached to syringes, but I couldn’t see anything else in the grass/bushes.
Looking for syringes wasn’t the goal of the walk. I was walking at a good pace, and didn’t slow down to investigate anything. That’s just what I happened to notice while walking briskly.
Fuck HACHR.
Whether it is HACHR or another group, the needle exchange program is needed.
No, it’s not.
Why? Why is it needed that we marginally reduce short-term harm to a group of people who voluntarily inject themselves with harmful substances, at the cost of allowing them to substantially harm society, both through needle litter and through enabling these people to live a lifestyle of crime and harm, as well as causing long-term harm to these same individuals by giving them one fewer reason to stop using these substances?
Junkies are usually too tired for crime. They nod off and just lay there.
It is not an exchange, it is a handout. They do not require needles to be returned.
The city acknowledges that responsibly managed, accountable syringe exchange programs fill a need to reduce infectious disease transmission rates among I.V. drug users. The Humboldt County Department of Health runs their own SEP.
I cannot support a SEP that engages in harm production over harm reduction by condoning or outright encouraging drug distribution and use. HACHR has repeatedly betrayed the community’s trust and is not the right fit for Eureka. Some may argue this failure is more misguided than malicious in nature but nonetheless Eureka is right to expect better.
There has never been a peer-review study conducted of the harm reduction of a needle handout program (not 1 for 1 exchange) vs the harm of littered needles.
Unless someone in your family is having unprotected sex with the intravenous drug using prostitute, and you are also having unprotected sex with this family member, there is practically no chance of contracting a blood-borne disease from a junkie. . . well unless you’re stuck with a little needle of course.
I think the harm reduction doesn’t in general refer to those not using. I believe the harm reduction is for the user.
Shouldn’t it really be “harm none”? Since people get harmed by littered needles and crime associated with HACHR. I wonder why only the user is worthy of “harm reduction”. Littered needles on the ground harms the environment. The sea animals are harmed. They end up in the bay all the time. People need to consider the real harm that “harm reduction” causes. 😷
Yes, harm reduction refers to the user.
We had one prior to HACHR. HEALTH DEPT. Didn’t have such a problem then.
Amen! This is the best news of 2020!
Goodbye and good riddance to bad rubbish AKA as HACHR!
Good news…
Good. I also oppose HACHR. Finally the city doing something I can get behind as it pertains to these drug addled homeless.
i have to wonder, how much money did EPD spend on the investigation? and i remember how EPD has had to settle so many brutality and wrongful death settlements, which come out of the city fund, and how those settlements have driven the city’s insurance premiums up. probably why 44% of the city’s budget goes to EPD.
so i wonder, how many people could have been put into treatment and provided with support services with all of that money? what has EPD accomplished with the millions of dollars they cost us?
furthermore, of course EPD will be able to eventually find some drug users around HACHR that would be willing to ignore the rules and avoid staff attempts to keep folks from breaking those rules.
gimme a few minutes walking around downtown and i’ll find somebody to sell me heroin. it’s not difficult. this is a hatchet job.
Same exact comment in two threads = spam.
Lol lol lol
Give me a break.
Read the entire notice. Have you?