PORT ANGELES — Clallam County’s Syringe Exchange Program needs some work, Susan Hillgren, executive director of The Answer for Youth, said during a Port Angeles Business Association meeting Tuesday.
“We need a needle exchange that works well,” she said. “If you want those needles to get off the ground, then we need a better needles exchange.”
She said The Answer for Youth (TAFY), a Port Angeles drop-in center for homeless teens and adults up to 35 years old, has a number of clients who are drug users.
The county operates an exchange program, handing out a sterile syringe in exchange for a used one to help prevent disease transmission.
The number of syringes has decreased since the county ensured that it exchanged on a one-to-one ratio, county Public Health Officer Dr. Chris Frank has said.
The number of needles handed out decreased from 284,395 in 2015 to 234,270 in 2016. In 2014, the county gave away 273,959 needles.
Hillgren said the problem with the syringe exchange program is that it is too public; it is in a busy part of Port Angeles and the public can see who is using the service.
“The one they have now, it’s in the county building across from Safeway” on Lincoln Street, she said, adding at one point, members of the public were calling law enforcement about clients who had warrants for their arrest.
The exchange helps with immunizations, medical referrals, HIV and hepatitis testing, naloxone and case management services for drug treatment, and operates as a walk-in clinic one day a week, from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, at 111 E. Third St. in Port Angeles.
Hillgren was asked to speak to PABA after TAFY moved to a new location at 826 E. First St., which was formerly Gross’s Nursery &Florist. TAFY moved from 711 E. Second St. and has operated at the new location since Dec. 26.
The group used a $100,000 anonymous donation to make a down payment on the $250,000 building and put money into remodeling.
Hillgren said she sees the homeless population as three distinct groups that shouldn’t be bunched together.
She sees homeless people with mental health issues, homeless people with chemical addiction issues and homeless people who are sober.
“We can’t treat them the same,” she said. “We need to look at them differently and handle them differently.”
Hillgren said something needs to be done to help the homeless population and curb the flow of drugs into the area, but she doesn’t know what exactly that is.
What she knows, she said, is that just getting mad doesn’t help.
She said there are efforts in town to push the homeless aside and out of sight, without actually fixing the problem.
“Instead of getting mad, let’s all work together and figure out how to make it work,” she said.
TAFY, a privately funded 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Hillgren and Pam Fosnes, provides hot meals and showers, cold food, laundry facilities, clothing, shoes, blankets and tents as well as help in acquiring general educational development (GED) certificates, food handler cards, identification, birth certificates and eyeglasses.
It also offers 22 Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings per week and celebrates birthdays, weddings and holidays.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsula dailynews.com.
