From January 1 to October 31, 2024, 26 overdoses – 2.6 per month – occurred in HELP USA shelters (figure 1). In 2023, 55 overdoses – 4.58 per month – occurred. This 43% decline is driven by two factors.
This year, no overdoses occurred family shelters and two occurred in women’s shelters. In 2023, 16% of the overdoses in our shelter system took place at these sites.
Second, overdoses in Wards Island shelters – where 80% of overdoses occurred in 2023 – declined by 35 % in 2024: an average 2.4 monthly overdoses occurred from Jan to Oct ’24 compared to 3.67 in 2023 (figure 1).
There are indications that declining overdoses in Wards Island may be attributed to the effectiveness of harm reduction services.
Figure 1: Overdoses in HELP USA’s NYC shelters (2019 – 2024*)
(* = Jan 1 to Oct 31)
In February 2024, a partner organization, Exponents, began providing these services to Wards Island clients on a bi-weekly basis. This includes the distribution of fentanyl and xylazine testing strips and safe use kits; and referrals to overdose prevention services. From February to April, six overdoses – two per month – occurred at these sites. Then, seven overdoses occurred in May alone. One person had overdosed multiple times.
HELP and Exponents designed a programmatic response to this problem. In June, the research department began sharing the list of clients with overdose histories, retrieved from DHS, to front-line staff and Exponents each month. Exponents expedites engagement and services for these high-risk clients. As a result, nine total overdoses have occurred from June to September – an average of 1.8 per month. Future work will examine causes for the overdose decline in Wards Island based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of engagements, resources delivered, and referrals to harm reduction programming.
