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On Wednesday, the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction‘s controversial syringe exchange program was granted a two-year reauthorization by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). However, the state’s reauthorization specifically excludes the City of Eureka, where HACHR is based, which means that if the organization wants to continue operating within city limits, it is once again bound to comply with the city’s rules and regulations.
Two years ago, HACHR effectively got out from under the city’s regulatory control by seeking and gaining state authorization to operate its syringe exchange program, which it says are based on the principles and best practices of harm reduction.
The relationship between HACHR and the City of Eureka has long been fraught, with many residents vehemently opposed to syringe exchange programs generally and to HACHR in particular.
Tensions escalated in August when the city released the results of a seven-month undercover investigation by the Eureka Police Department, which allegedly found that HACHR’s staff was knowingly allowing drug use and drug trafficking on their Third Street premises. HACHR denied the allegations, but in September the Eureka City Council agreed to send a letter to the state formally opposing reauthorization of HACHR’s syringe program.
The state’s decision this week to reauthorize HACHR for another two years gives the organization permission to keep operating its mobile locations in Arcata, McKinleyville, Willow Creek, Orick and Fortuna, along with home delivery and pickup services countywide — except in Eureka.
HACHR Executive Director Lasara Firefox Allen told the Outpost Thursday evening that they has been personally working with Eureka Interim City Manager Miles Slattery, Mayor Susan Seaman and members of the Eureka City Council, and that after submitting some quarterly reports, the organization is now in full compliance with the city’s own ordinance governing syringe exchange programs.
“Our relationship with the City of Eureka is important,” Allen said, “and we want it to be a mutually agreed-upon relationship where we’re working toward a larger goal, which is serving the most marginalized populations in our community.”
They said HACHR has every intention of remaining compliant with the city’s ordinance. Asked why the state specifically excluded Eureka from its reauthorization, Allen said that after discussing the situation with state health officials there was “kind of a collective agreement that it might be better for us to work on our relationship with the city [and] to not have the state outranking [Eureka]. That’s been a bit of a bone of contention,” they added. “It’s more clear this way.”
Slattery confirmed to the Outpost that HACHR is now in compliance with the city’s rules for syringe exchange programs. “However,” he hastened to add, “we are going to have some mediation so we can update our ordinance and have more local control.”
The Eureka City Council recently directed staff to pursue mediation between HACHR, local community members and other stakeholders. Slattery said the goal is to develop “more solutions for local control that have some teeth” and to “discuss dome parameters so we can regulate some of the issues that have happened.”
He said that a mediator has already been contacted, and the city hopes to conduct the meetings sometime in the next couple of weeks.
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