Parker administration plans at least three triage facilities for people with addiction

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration wants to open at least three facilities that offer a range of shelter and medical services for people in addiction as part of a $100 million plan to expand drug treatment options in the city.

Officials detailed the strategy to open three to five “triage and wellness centers” — including listing types of services they may offer — in a document posted to a city contracting website Friday seeking an outside consultant to assist in developing the plans.

Some of the specifics included in that document were not detailed by top Parker administration officials who testified to City Council on Monday about the triage center plans. During the hearing, a half-dozen members sharply criticized Managing Director Adam K. Thiel for what they described as an ambiguous proposal.

But the Friday request for proposals shows that the city is seeking to contract a design consultant for site preparation work. Councilmember Kendra Brooks said Tuesday the fact that details were outlined in the city’s request for proposals that weren’t relayed to Council — such as how many centers are planned — showed “the administration’s unwillingness to partner with City Council on a project that will impact all of our constituents.”

“Every time I’ve asked questions about triage centers over the past several months, the administration has been unable to answer,” Brooks said. “Now, we’re seeing details in a [request for proposals] that the administration didn’t even mention in yesterday’s budget hearing.”

Administration spokesperson Joe Grace said the triage center project is “an all-hands-on deck effort.”

“We’re working with credible consultants and other professionals every day to build something that’s never been built before,” he said, “a comprehensive system of long-term care, treatment and housing for individuals living among us and suffering from addiction to substances, mental health challenges, and experiencing homelessness.”

» READ MORE: Philadelphia could establish a triage center for people in addiction within weeks, official says

Thiel said repeatedly under questioning Monday that the Parker administration is building out a “wellness system” to offer a range of services. But he did not say how many centers the administration intends to open, where they might be located, how much money each will cost, when they will open, or exactly what services they will provide.

He said his office would brief Council members in the coming weeks, but members expressed frustration.

“We’re being asked to fund the mayor’s bold vision but given very little concrete information for how it’s going to go about,” Councilmember Rue Landau said Monday. Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke added: “It has been made abundantly clear that the very specific questions that have been asked by colleagues are receiving extremely general, vague answers.”

Some of those questions were answered in the request for proposals.

The document describes plans for multiple sites offering different levels of care — from “drop-in” style safe-haven shelters, to inpatient medical or mental health treatment centers, to permanent housing options. Some centers will provide one type of service; others may offer a range. It does not indicate that law enforcement will play a role in the sites.

Design work would start by June 1 and the consultants are to be paid no more than $100,000, according to the document. Council has not yet approved the administration’s budget proposal, which includes using debt financing to fund the $100 million triage center plan. The deadline for Council to reach an agreement on Parker’s spending and revenue plan is the end of June, when the current budget expires.

The request for proposals states that Thiel’s office is still in the planning stages of the triage center strategy. Another section labeled “performance metrics” states that the city “does not have specific metrics identified at this time but may introduce them during contract negotiations.”

Thiel has emphasized that the plan is under development.

“I think we’ve been clear, it is not ready,” he told Council. “We are talking about doing something that does not exist at scale to address the policy needs that all of you have articulated over the past couple of years.”

As for locations, Thiel’s office wrote in the request for proposals that sites have “yet to be identified,” but an online description for the same contracting opportunity says the city “has identified several locations for consideration.” It says the office is exploring renovating existing buildings and constructing new ones.

Thiel has said that although Parker’s administration has concentrated on ending the open-air drug market in Kensington, triage facilities could be located in neighborhoods across the city.

His office announced last week that it has worked with addiction service providers to expand capacity at an existing shelter in Fairmount, but Council members said they didn’t learn about work at the site until The Inquirer reported on it.

Sources involved in the planning of the site at 2100 W. Girard Ave., who spoke to The Inquirer on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said the administration was planning to open a “triage center” there.

A city spokesperson later said it was a “wellness center,” a characterization Thiel then also rejected. He said it is merely an “expansion of existing services” and told Council on Monday that the triage center plan remains under development.