To fix Kensington, a new Philly lawmaker has a controversial proposal: Stronger law enforcement

A gaggle of police, city officials, and news cameramen led by Councilmember Quetcy Lozada attempted to walk down Kensington Avenue earlier this month when they encountered two dozen people blocking the sidewalk.

Some were in tents. Some had lit fires. Some were visibly injecting drugs. A man sitting on a bucket yelled: “Get out of here.”

Philadelphia Police Inspector Anthony Luca responded tersely: “You get out.”

Within minutes, people gathered their belongings and walked away. But Luca lamented that no one was cited or arrested, saying officers don’t feel empowered to enforce laws against drug possession and opioid use, especially in Kensington, where the city has for years avoided criminalizing addiction or showing large displays of force.

Lozada wants that to change.

The freshman City Council member, who took office last year and represents Kensington, is advocating for the city to take an enforcement-driven approach to handling the billion-dollar opioid trade that has plagued the neighborhood and brought along with it some of the highest rates of gun violence in the city.

The issues facing Kensington are complex and deeply rooted. Amid sprawling homeless encampments, piles of trash, and immense human suffering are dozens of drug dealers. Police have estimated that there are as many as 80 blocks where open-air drug sales bring in thousands of dollars a day, and that clearing a corner is short-lived. Other dealers quickly move in.

Lozada, a Democrat, believes that the situation has festered because the city has focused its resources and attention on people who use drugs and “moved too far off of people who are actually living and working there,” creating an unsafe environment for families and children who have long called Kensington home.

She wants to see a stronger law enforcement presence, and envisions a day when the city could involuntarily commit people in addiction to “stabilization centers,” where they could choose long-term treatment or criminal charges. The strategy would be highly controversial and would almost certainly face legal and practical hurdles.

But Lozada may find a new ally in the Mayor’s Office. Democratic mayoral nominee Cherelle Parker also wants a more aggressive approach, saying last week that she may seek assistance from the National Guard to help “shut down the open-air drug market in Kensington.”

Lozada said she’s “grateful that [Parker] is not shying away from anything.”

Such an approach is out of step with Mayor Jim Kenney, who has favored harm reduction policies that aim to keep people who use drugs alive and out of the cycle of the criminal justice system. Arrests for drug possession have declined precipitously: year to date, 739 have been arrested on charges of drug possession. At the same point in 2019, the number was more than 5,300.

A change from Kenney’s course would be met with resistance from some, who see Lozada and Parker as endorsing drug strategies of the past that led to a bloated prison population and high arrest rates among people with substance-use disorders. The city has made a concerted effort to reduce its jail population, which declined from 8,082 people in July 2015 to 4,770 as of last month.

“What are you going to do, arrest everyone who’s homeless or in addiction?” said Rosalind Pichardo, founder of Operation Save Our City and a longtime Kensington activist. “Folks trying to implement these harsh things are not going to make my community that’s already underserved any better.”

Lozada said any increase in law enforcement should be coupled with an infusion of resources to address quality-of-life issues and treatment availability.

Still, the way she sees it, Kensington needs a course correction.

“Enforcement is going to play a huge role in the work that we do in Kensington,” she said. “I know that folks are not comfortable having the enforcement conversation. But it is a priority.”

Lozada showed from the beginning of her term that she’s on the side of residents and civic groups who want the city to crack down by arresting more people who openly use illegal drugs.

She’d spent more than a decade as chief of staff to then-Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez, who resigned last year to launch an unsuccessful run for mayor. Her departure left the Council seat open.

Quiñones Sánchez described herself as a “pragmatic progressive” and was known as an independent lawmaker who beat the city’s Democratic machine. Lozada, more conservative, was supported by some of the same ward leaders who’d rejected Quiñones Sánchez.

Lozada won the seat in November 2022 in an uncompetitive special election.

She was almost immediately campaigning again ahead of this year’s May primary. Her challenger was a progressive who favored a social services-driven approach.

Five days before the election, Lozada introduced a bill to effectively prohibit a supervised drug consumption site from opening in her district. Kenney supports the sites, where people can use drugs in front of clinicians and be revived if they overdose, as a way to reduce drug-related deaths. Last year, 1,413 people died of overdoses, a record high.

» READ MORE: More Philadelphians than ever died of overdoses in 2022, with toll especially grim among Black residents

Lozada’s legislation leveraged councilmanic prerogative, a tradition that gives district Council members near-total control over land-use and zoning decisions in their districts.

Banning drug consumption sites under the zoning code means anyone trying to open one would need a variance. They would have to go through neighborhood civic groups, which in Lozada’s district oppose such a site.

Lozada won the primary, and over the summer, worked over her colleagues. She’d initially gotten four colleagues to sign on to her bill and four more members added their districts by fall, to effectively ban the facilities in 90% of the city.

In mid-September, her bill passed, 13-1. Kenney vetoed it, and Council overrode his veto. It’s rare for a freshman Council member to champion major legislation, but Lozada’s colleagues said it wouldn’t have happened without her.

“She motivated us all,” said Councilmember Anthony Phillips, who included his Northwest Philadelphia-based district in the legislation. “It’s something we probably would have kept delaying.”

The day the legislation passed, Kensington civic leaders testified in support, describing unsafe conditions.

There was also intense opposition. Some spoke of loved ones who died of overdose. Moses Santana, a Kensington native, called members “Democrats who are voting like Republicans.”

“We will vote to remove you,” he said. “I promise you.”

During a news conference the day her bill passed, Lozada said she’s committed to getting people in addiction into recovery programs. A woman who supports drug consumption sites heckled her, saying “people can’t get into recovery if they’re dead!”

“I will put those who live in my community first,” Lozada shot back. “And I will not apologize.”

Lozada said finding a solution for Kensington requires a holistic strategy akin to a “Marshall Plan,” a reference to the recovery effort in Europe after World War II.

Earlier this year, at Lozada’s request, a Council committee held a hearing on Kensington, and residents — including children — testified to the conditions. One girl described avoiding windows in case of bullets. Another asked for safe pathways to and from school, without drug paraphernalia and trash littering the sidewalks.

To that end, Lozada announced earlier this month that — at her urging — the city is launching a “24-hour cleaning pilot,” with more Streets Department employees assigned to Kensington.

Erica Green, the principal of Conwell Middle Magnet School, which sits off of Kensington Avenue, said that students navigate drug paraphernalia and bodily fluids, and that the situation has gotten worse during her 13 years as principal.

But Green said that, over the last several months, “we’re definitely seeing a change.”

“It feels good when the students are coming to and from school and they’re, like, OK, the [trash] trucks are out there cleaning,” she said. “It makes them feel a little bit better.”

» READ MORE: Opinion: In election season, people care about Kensington. Then we become invisible again.

While the event was focused on trash cleanup, it is impossible to de-couple law enforcement from Lozada’s strategy.

The day of her news conference, she was flanked by officers when she took reporters on a tour of the corridor. Police cleared people from the sidewalks, then called in Streets Department employees to wash it down.

Business owners asked Lozada for more cops. And she told reporters gathered at the tour that interim Police Commissioner John Stanford has “committed to bringing more enforcement to this neighborhood.”

Sgt. Eric Gripp, a spokesperson for the department, said officers this year have undertaken targeted efforts in Kensington that have led to large drug seizures and a significant reduction of shootings and homicides compared to last year.

He said arrests for drug possession have declined for a variety of reasons, including that year-to-date, more than 1,000 people have been diverted to treatment and support services, reducing the need for arrests. Gripp also said short-staffing and operational adjustments during the pandemic affected the number of arrests.

It’s unclear whether a more punitive strategy would be supported by District Attorney Larry Krasner, who has spoken in the past about a desire to offer diversionary programs to those charged with mere drug possession. Year to date, the office has filed charges in virtually every drug possession case police brought.

Spokesperson Jane Roh said the District Attorney’s Office is looking forward to working with the next mayor, police leaders, and Council members to deliver results for residents and businesses in “long-underserved communities like Kensington.”

“The Philly DA’s Office will continue to seek a collaborative, just, and evidence-based approach to law enforcement and support for people living with behavioral health issues, substance use disorder, and homelessness,” she said.

Not every resident wants more policing. In McPherson Square Park, Antonio Lopez spoke to Lozada in Spanish and told her that officers were already being too forceful in removing people from the park.

But Lozada said the city can’t have people using drugs in the open. She insists her position is compassionate, and that she wants to help people in addiction get into recovery.

She said she thinks often about a woman she saw over the summer who was injecting drugs into an open wound. Lozada said she called the city Health Department to get the woman medical attention, but was told that treating her without her consent could constitute assault.

Lozada thought that there was nothing she could do, and wants a new approach because constituents “deserve a better, cleaner, safer neighborhood.”

Many residents are skeptical. They’ve heard new plans before. Patrice Rogers, who transformed a vacant lot along Kensington Avenue into a safe haven, said that although she likes what she hears from Lozada, she’s not convinced conditions will improve.

“I haven’t seen change yet,” she said. “But I believe what she says.”

Pichardo, of Operation Save Our City, said the cleanup efforts have been effective, “but what’s under the surface is way deeper than trash.”

“They can make it look pretty,” she said, “but they’re not addressing the real issue, and that’s lack of resources.”

Inquirer staff writer Chris Palmer contributed to this article.