Philly City Council members are pushing for a Kensington ‘triage center’ for people who use drugs

A group of Philadelphia City Council members who represent Kensington say they will seek funding this year for a city-run “triage center” where police and outreach workers could bring people who use drugs to either seek recovery or, potentially, to be arrested.

The Council members said the idea is to get more people in addiction off the streets of Kensington and into long-term treatment programs.

“There will be court-driven treatment or court-driven programs that they will have to attend, or there will be arrest and consequences that may be possible,” Councilmember Mark Squilla said. “What we’re looking at is making sure there’s plenty of opportunities to get out before jail would be the last possible option.”

Squilla and several other Council members floated the concept Thursday during a news conference announcing a new caucus of four members who have made improving conditions in the neighborhood a key priority. The caucus also includes Councilmembers Quetcy Lozada and Mike Driscoll, whose districts, like Squilla’s, include parts of Kensington, as well as at-large Councilmember Jim Harrity, who lives in the neighborhood.

Lozada has suggested for months that she would seek to establish a “stabilization center” in the neighborhood, which is home to the city’s largest open-air drug market. She has championed a handful of other legislative efforts to address drug use, including banning supervised drug consumption sites and instituting a curfew on some businesses.

The cost of a city-run center was unclear Thursday, and funding for any such effort would require buy-in from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who has vowed to shut down the drug market in Kensington. Parker is expected to unveil her first city budget in March. Negotiations between Council and the administration will last months, and Council must approve a spending and revenue plan by the end of June before the current budget expires.

Parker spokesperson Joe Grace said the administration would review a triage center proposal once one is available.

He pointed out that Parker’s 100-day plan includes developing a strategy to improve public safety, including in Kensington, and to “explore every option and funding source to provide long-term housing, care, and treatment of our most vulnerable residents, including unhoused residents and those suffering from addiction and mental-health challenges.”

There are already a handful of centers in Kensington that are run by nonprofits and offer such services as treatment information, food, and health-care access to people struggling with substance use and addiction.

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But the Council members said their vision is for a central location in the neighborhood where city workers can divert people to treatment, including through the city’s Police-Assisted Diversion program. That initiative offers rehabilitation options to people facing criminal charges for low-level crimes like drug possession and prostitution.

“People are speculating that we’re just going to start arresting people and stuff like that, and that is not our intention,” Harrity said. “We know we cannot arrest our way out of this.”

Lozada said Council plans to “work in partnership with law enforcement, with the administration, and with other providers to figure out what is the best way to actually bring [people] in.”

Council President Kenyatta Johnson said he supports the new Kensington caucus, saying he couldn’t remember another time that members formally came together to focus their legislative efforts on one neighborhood. And he indicated he’d lobby for funding that his colleagues were seeking.

“As we go through the budget process,” Johnson said, “we’ll strategically look at how we can make sure that the neighborhood of Kensington has the type of resources that they need.”