Philly’s zoning board voted to bar a Kensington addiction nonprofit from hosting multiple medical providers

Zoning officials in Philadelphia voted Wednesday to bar multiple medical providers from working at the same time at Prevention Point, a public health organization that provides health care for people with addiction at its Kensington offices.

The decision could result in delays in patients’ medical care. Since 2019, the nonprofit has allowed several medical providers to see patients simultaneously at its clinic in a converted church on Kensington Avenue near one of the largest open-air drug markets in the country.

But the city informed Prevention Point earlier this year that, in order to continue doing so, it needed to obtain a “special exception” from the Zoning Board of Adjustment. On Wednesday, the board voted unanimously to deny the request.

Prevention Point plans to appeal, its executive director, Silvana Mazzella, said in a statement. A spokesperson for the organization said that Prevention Point will continue to operate with multiple medical providers on site until a decision on the appeal is made.

She called the decision disappointing and noted Prevention Point’s work is supported by many community members, doctors, and the city planning commission, adding that the zoning board had “ignored the well-settled law” in its decision.

“We remain confident in the strength of our case and that we will ultimately prevail. In the meantime, we will continue to provide our life-saving medical care to individuals who are often unwilling or unable to seek it in other medical settings,” Mazzella said. “This saves our medical system millions of dollars.”

The Kensington nonprofit houses the city’s only brick-and-mortar syringe exchange and offers a number of health services to clients, including medications to treat opioid addiction; primary care for HIV-positive patients; and treatment of the wounds caused by the animal tranquilizer xylazine, commonly called tranq.

Staff and supporters of Prevention Point said the nonprofit provides crucial care in an accessible location for people with addiction — many of whom are reluctant to leave the neighborhood because they fear entering withdrawal. (Many people with addiction use drugs not to experience a pleasurable high, but simply to avoid painful withdrawal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and cramps.)

Cutting the number of doctors allowed to provide care on-site could cause delays in medical care for clients, the organization has said.

The vote comes amid a year of intense debate among elected officials and Philadelphia residents about the role of addiction services in Kensington. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has pledged to curb open drug use and dealing in the neighborhood.

Earlier this year, Parker cut nearly $1 million in Prevention Point’s funding to provide sterile syringes. (Parker has said such programs should be privately funded and emphasized her support for wide-ranging public health strategies to address the overdose epidemic.)

And a City Council committee recently advanced a bill that would have limited the areas in Kensington where vans offering medical services can park. That bill is currently on hold while Council continues to negotiate with providers, the Parker administration, and neighbors on how to organize mobile medical services in the neighborhood, said its author, Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.

This summer, a civic organization in the neighborhood voted to oppose the request to update Prevention Point’s zoning permit. And Lozada and three other City Council members who represent districts that include Kensington sent a letter to the zoning board opposing the proposal, saying that the services Prevention Point offers should be provided on a medical campus.

At a November hearing on the matter, some neighbors raised concerns about the people who congregate outside Prevention Point’s offices on Kensington Avenue, echoing long-standing complaints that organizations like Prevention Point promote drug use in the neighborhood. Most neighbors who spoke at that hearing opposed the special exemption.

“We’re seeing people linger more, and then when they get pushed away, they go into the neighborhoods, defecate, urinate, linger, and shoot up,” Jose Antonio Chacon, a Kensington resident, said at the hearing. “It’s really diminishing the quality of life of people who live, work, and have to traverse the area.”

But the Philadelphia City Planning Commission said it had concluded that the proposal would have “no detrimental effects” on the neighborhood and recommended granting the exception.

Providers in the neighborhood and other residents said that Kensington’s vast open-air drug market is what draws people with addiction to the neighborhood, and that the services caring for them set up shop in Kensington in response.

“Whenever I have seen services decreased in the neighborhood, it has made conditions on the street worse,” said Andrea McIntosh, a researcher who has worked in homeless services and owns a home in the neighborhood.