Are we at a Point in Time when it may behoove the powers that be, you know, those making decisions for how best to deal with our homeless crisis, to better understand harm-reduction? After working endless hours and spending quality time for the past decade with our community’s cohort of homeless people, it’s very rewarding to see that many have genuine souls of integrity! Yes, they appear nefarious, contaminating, self-defeating, and let it be known, do not allow footwear removal in close closed quarters, unless it’s to soak them in a bucket of warm episome salt water.
VSN would like to express gratitude to Ms. Melanie Gilbert and Ms. Patricia Hiort for their recent inspirational news articles and images. One in particular appears to offer a Spark of Hope for designing a resolve that we believe displays high efficacy potential. As much as we do not have all the answers, we do have plenty of useful data, based primarily on a Harm-reduction paradigm for addiction remission. Designed as an outreach program initiated in 2015, it availed many lessons and data sets. A year marking a Point in Time for the arrival of fentanyl-laced opioids into our community. The article of special interest refers to collaboration between law enforcement, therapeutic non-profits, and other supporting agencies.
So as not to sound like Bullwinkle about to pull a rabbit out of our hat, we’d like to share a few of our pertinent observations, which may be helpful. • Illicit drug use is not to be condoned; yet improper self-medication approaches may sometimes be all that is keeping a person alive. “She appears to have lost her will to live,” voiced by a mother some years ago. Harm-reduction mental response: keep her alive long enough to heal. And, of course, refrain from validating the obvious, as that tends to make matters worse. • A client: “Can you please pick me up? I am afraid that if I try to walk through town to my house, I will end up doing another date and staying out all night!” Harm-reduction response: refrain from reprimand and assist unconditionally, while of course leveraging the drive-time to administer some encouragement and coaching. • Associate while working the JAM area: “You may want to come down and get your client before an arrest is made.” Other network members would do similar for others in too deep, as well. One late night: “Doc, your client is in the back alley of the club and looks to be dead or very close to it.” “I’ll be right there.”
Now of course, simply providing assistance, void of proper coaching and mentoring during the interactions, is probably too closely related to enabling such behaviors. Coaching and/or mentoring requires a good comprehension of healthy behavior modification for such assistance to be beneficial and a nonjudgemental application of it instrumental for it to work well. In time, affirmation brings addiction disorders from denial (pre-contemplation) to the contemplation phase, according to the Prochaska and DiClemente “Stages of Change Model” (1983).
Let’s not belabor the topic area and simply applaud law enforcement’s collaboration with social services and professional treatment providers. This national crisis is going to take all three branches of government to resolve, and we believe data is key. Doc has often mentioned during group sessions that executive surveillance data may better serve our public good, and the health and well-being of those being surveilled, with a stronger focus on harm-reduction. In other words, police those illicit transactions that end in death, discern who is just getting high, and learn who may be surviving childhood trauma, or abusive relationships at home, and truly need assistance. Protect and serve those who were not protected and served as children. Also, an experienced eye can easily see the contrasting results of a dose of heroin vs. a dose of heroin laced with fentanyl. One looks like a nodding off behavior and the other a bobble behavior, respectively. Where the bobble came from may be available in the data.
In closing, another poetic treat from Author Ebner! And a special thanks to all those who have contributed and collaborated with us over the years, together we have saved many lives. It was a “we” effort: colleagues, law enforcement, program graduates, twelve-steppers, Smarties, prescribing doctors and nurse practitioners, psychiatrists, and last but not least, love you, food ladies! Collaborating data sets can complete the mission.
artist: Emily LaBranche
PIT? Do you know what PIT is? It is Not: an arm pit, a peach pit, Gamecock pit, racetrack pit, Fire pit, sand pit, money pit, pit boss, a pit bull, a pit stop, misspelled Brad Pit, or a hole in the ground. Although, they could be living in one.
The Point-in-Time Count, or PIT Count, is an annual survey of homeless people in the United States conducted by local agencies. The PIT consists of an observational count and a survey of homeless people, the former to establish a sense of scale and the latter to estimate the number of individuals in various subcategories, like homeless veterans or homeless youth. A PIT Count is a federal effort by HUD to count sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January, used for funding/resource allocation, with data submitted by local Continuums of Care (CoCs) and reported in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. This year’s Lowell count happens on 01/29/2026.
So, who are the homeless, and how can you count them if they are homeless?
People are Homeless for different reasons, and for many of the same reasons. They can be; Veterans, the Elderly, Victims of Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, or the Mentally and/or the Physically ill, people with Substance Abuse issues, the Unemployed, the Under paid, and many other reasons. They are not necessarily Lazy bums that need to get a job’ as some of the more fortunate among us call them.
An accurate count of the homeless is impossible. The Pit really only serves as a rough comparison between yearly numbers. Recent counts show rising homelessness, with 771,480 people counted in January 2024, an 18% increase from 2023, driven mainly by the affordability crisis.
