Scott Collins, assistant to the city manager, says meetings will be happening "soon" to discuss regulations for the county program.
The Santa Cruz needle exchange has moved for now, but the debate over its future is far from over.
It has been two months since city attorney John Barisone came down with a case of political amnesia and said he’d never heard of the 20-year-old institution. And under the pressure of Ken Collins and others upset about needles and hazardous waste, the city forced the previous location in Lower Ocean to close for operating without a permit in January.
Leaders from the city and county health department, which oversees the program, are now working to figure out what the needle exchange’s future is, and where it should be.
Scott Collins, assistant to the Santa Cruz City Manager, says the new regulations might include a one-for-one exchange, instead of the current program, which allows users to get extra 30 hypodermic needles. Lisa Hernandez, the county’s new public health officer, says the model should include a central location close to the users, like the previous spot, and disposal kiosks around the county to collect discarded syringes.
The needle exchange, which already operated at the Emeline Avenue county health building on Sundays, added Tuesday and Friday to its schedule to make up for the Lower Ocean facility’s closure. Street Outreach Supporters are also doing home deliveries. Hernandez says attendance dropped when the facility moved, but doesn’t know if that’s partly due to the political climate surrounding the exchange.
Concerned residents near the Emeline facility say they have been finding trash and discarded needles near their homes and even in their yards. Collins says encampments have also moved closer to the facility in the woods and that there are security issues that are still being worked out with law enforcement.
City council voted as part of its public safety recommendations in February to support having a needle exchange in Santa Cruz. Collins says there will be a meeting “soon” to discuss the future of the program, where it will be and new regulations.
