When a state panel rejected $7.5M in opioid settlement spending, it showed how little it understands Kensington’s challenges

In 2021, then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro joined his counterparts in 14 other states in negotiating settlement agreements with four pharmaceutical companies that would enable millions of dollars to flow into cities and towns across Pennsylvania to address the enduring harms of the ongoing opioid crisis.

Few communities — in our commonwealth or in our nation — have felt those harms as deeply as Kensington.

Under the terms of the agreements, officials at the county level determine how the money from the settlement is spent in their communities, and a newly created state panel, the Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust, leads the oversight and administration of those funds.

As the leaders of four organizations deeply involved in the work of helping Kensington heal, we were encouraged that local officials would get to decide how the money was used — a step that might help ensure our community members’ voices would be heard.

However, in June, the trust found that the city’s use of $7.5 million in settlement money to help pay for a series of community revitalization efforts that included rent relief and repairing homes, parks, and schools did not comply with its guidelines for how the money should be spent.

City officials, with the support of community members, are contesting the decision, and a virtual appeal hearing is scheduled for Thursday. The crux of the city’s arguments is that because the revitalization efforts are either based on, or informed by, research, they are clearly in compliance with guidelines and should be allowed.

The trust’s decision reflects a misconception that two of the most pressing needs in Kensington — addressing the quality-of-life concerns of long-term residents and treating individuals with substance use disorders with care and empathy — are separate issues.

Viewing those issues as unrelated demonstrates a lack of understanding about what impacts substance use disorder — such as adverse childhood experiences — and what constitutes effective prevention — such as the community-focused interventions that have been deployed.

We hope trust members have used the months since their decision to speak with residents, visit our community, and become more familiar with our history in an effort to better understand Kensington.

While we fully understand how essential it is that the funds are spent effectively, we also hope the trust pays heed to experts in research, substance use prevention, and healing. Listen to the community and stakeholders with firsthand knowledge of our challenges.

As local residents and leaders of harm reduction organizations and community-based nonprofits in Kensington, we represent diverse perspectives. We do not claim to be the sole voice of Kensington, but it is safe to say that we represent a very broad constituency and set of ideas. Though our views may not always perfectly align, we recognize our interconnectedness and believe collective action is crucial for solutions that address our individual missions.

Early on, residents and stakeholders recognized the need for collective action and an ongoing, inclusive planning process for Kensington to compile a list of priorities: eliminating Kensington as a narcotics destination, supporting reunification for outsiders, designating safe spaces for families, prioritizing sanitation and public space usability, establishing progress reporting, and providing housing and treatment for all. That led to the formation of Co-Creating Kensington, a group tasked with listening to and refining the self-identified needs of the community to address its challenges.

City officials also listened and identified that the funds and guidelines from the opioid settlement were aligned with the self-identified priorities and needs of the community.

Kensington has some of the highest rates of trauma-inducing conditions such as poverty, housing instability, drug-related crime, and more. All of these experiences also create a type of trauma that research indicates has a direct link to substance misuse and overdose.

Let’s not only center trauma but also center the resilience of the community.

In a majority Black and brown community, where more than half of families with children live in poverty, and which has the highest incidence of violent crime across all neighborhoods in Philadelphia, this understanding is of paramount importance.

Still, let’s not only center trauma but also the resilience of the community.

Kensington is not merely the “Walmart of Heroin,” as the New York Times has suggested. Kensington is a multiracial, working-class community of children, families, entrepreneurs, artists, visionaries, and leaders who have earned the right to self-determination. Like other neighborhoods, it is a place that lost significant industrial jobs in the 1970s, experienced systematic redlining, and exists within a unique geography that deeply impacts its current state.

In January, the city announced that opioid settlement funding would be allocated to address housing insecurity by targeting evictions, foreclosure, and the need for basic home repair; to reactivate the six parks in the area through community-led efforts; and to deploy funds to the six public schools in the neighborhood to ensure children have a chance to minimize adverse effects that they overwhelmingly experience in Kensington.

All of these are priorities the Kensington community itself has identified as crucial to addressing the opioid crisis.

We know that people want to help Kensington, and we appreciate that desire, but we ask you to help by listening.

Let Kensington speak for itself, and we ask the opioid trust to trust Kensington.

Bill McKinney is the executive director of New Kensington Community Development Corp. Carla Sofronski is the cofounder and executive director of Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network. Sterling Johnson is the board president of the Philadelphia Community Land Trust. Britt Carpenter is the executive director of Philly Unknown.