New York City has unveiled the Community Link initiative, a coordinated effort aimed at tackling the opioid crisis and improving quality of life in the South Bronx, particularly around The Hub at 149th Street and 3rd Avenue. Spearheaded by Mayor Eric Adams, the program involves key city agencies including the Department of Health, the Department of Homeless Services, NYPD, and local community organizations. Focused on harm reduction, the initiative provides critical resources such as naloxone kits, supportive housing, and outreach services for people struggling with addiction and homelessness. Local leaders, including Councilmember Rafael Salamanca, Assemblymember Amanda Septimo, and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, stressed the need for more equitable distribution of social services across the city, as the Bronx bears a disproportionate share of opioid-related deaths and substance abuse challenges. With the backing of millions in funding, Community Link aims to restore dignity to marginalized communities, address deep-rooted inequities, and create pathways to recovery, housing, and economic opportunity for vulnerable populations. This collaborative approach promises not only to improve the South Bronx but also set a precedent for citywide solutions to complex public health and social issues.
Mayor Adams Announces Multi-Agency Operation to Address Urgent Public Safety and Quality-of-Life Concerns Along Melrose Avenue in Bronx, AKA “The HUB”
Deputy Mayor Camille Joseph Varlack, Administration: Good afternoon, my name is Camille Joseph Varlack and I serve as the chief of staff and deputy mayor for Administration. I’d like to start by saying thank you to all of our partners at the NYPD, DOHMH, DHS, DOB, Sanitation, Transportation, DHS and special thank yous to Borough President Gibson, Councilman Salamanca and Assemblywoman Septimo for joining us today.
As the mayor always says, public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity and that is the principle that drives the foundation of our work. One of the initiatives that we are most proud of is our Community Link program, which gets to the heart of being on the ground and serving New Yorkers. This administration is proud to lead with comprehensive, community-driven solutions to directly address the chronic quality of life challenges and ensure that no neighborhood is overlooked or underserved. To tell you more on our ongoing work, I’m pleased to introduce Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much Camille and really all of you who are here, particularly our elected officials. This has been an issue that has been raised over and over again. When you look at what is taking place at The Hub, it was really as Councilman Salamanca was sharing with me earlier, it’s really something that’s just sort of moving the problem around, kicking the can down the road and that road has a dead end here in this administration because we want to respond to the issue.
You cannot just walk by people injecting themselves with drugs, people who are dealing with mental health issues, people who are creating dangerous environments for the residents of the city. We are clear and we said it over and over again, this is not an any and everything go administration when things that are playing out on our streets would be ignored. And the team under Deputy Mayor Joseph Varlack has been clearly looking at these issues.
Public safety is a prerequisite to our prosperity. I’ve said it over and over again, I live by that motto and I’m going to continue to live it out on the streets of our city. Every New Yorker deserves a safe place for their families and a safe place for their community and not just their own neighborhood but in every neighborhood throughout the city. Issues like illegal vending and overflowing trash, substance use and scaffolding, unlicensed cannabis shops and more have persisted for far too long and we have taken a real step to correcting these issues and one of the most important initiatives that we have put in place is the Community Link program.
We’re answering the public safety and quality of life complaints of New Yorkers and this is by deploying the right mixture of agencies and officials in partnership with the community. We’re doing it together and we’re getting the results we need and so today we bring the program right here to the Bronx, The Hub. We’ve heard over and over again about The Hub and the ability to bring this program here means a lot to the residents, both the President Vanessa Gibson and the councilman, Councilman Salamanca have been really focusing on what is taking place at The Hub.
With a joint agency operation that addresses substance abuse, homeless outreach and maintaining street cleanliness along Melrose Avenue, the community here in the Bronx said they wanted a more safe and a better quality of life approach to their community and we’re delivering for them. The initiative builds bridges between city agencies and the leaders of local communities because we know how important it is to work hand in hand with the community to keep our neighborhoods safe, clean and protected.
The level of partnership is vast from collaborating with the NYPD, Homeless Services and the Department of Sanitation to the Department of Transportation, Buildings and Health and Mental Hygiene. It’s a complete collaboration of all of our city agencies dismantling the walls that prevent us from getting the results that we want.
And this initiative has made an impact on this city since its inception. Over the last 19 months, Community Link has responded to over 1,200 complaints and conducted over 1,200 operations to address quality of life concerns raised by the communities they serve. Those are the results we’re looking for, those are the results we are getting and adding The Hub to this network will address the complex chronic complaints and improve public safety in the Hunts Point, Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx.
I want to be clear, our administration does not tolerate and we will never tolerate, as I stated, an anything goes atmosphere in our communities, no matter what street you are on. When it comes to keeping our streets clean, we will continue to relegate the mountains of black trash bags to the dust pans of history, changing how we keep our streets clean. The DSNY has increased trash collection of public garbage cans in the area to three times per day and today’s announcement also builds on our recent achievement in reducing crime across New York City.
You hear us say it over and over again because our administration’s steadfast focus on eradicating gun violence, homicides and shootings have declined each of our three years in office. We are both now at double digits level and as of last month, NYPD, they have removed more than 20,000 illegal firearms from our streets since the beginning of this administration. Each gun we take off our street, it stops the potential of taking the life of an innocent person.
But even with this record, we will not rest until we have addressed the issues that still affect the daily lives of everyday New Yorkers. We will continue to stay vigilant and making our city the safest big city in America and each block the safest block in our country. This is what we do at this level and we want to continue to move fast with a steadfast approach of bringing public safety to this community and The Hub is on our list of cleaning up The Hub finally with this community as you ask for. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Joseph Varlack: Thank you, mayor. I’m now excited to turn the conversation over to DOHMH Executive Deputy Commissioner Dr. H. Jean Wright.
Executive Deputy Commissioner H. Jean Wright, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: Thank you, Mayor Adams. We are here today because the crisis we see before us is the result of decades of disparities. Disparities in care and resources and often in attention. Even as we start to see the slight declines in overdose deaths, the reality is that the Bronx continues to bear a disproportionately high burden.
At the Health Department, we are immensely proud to work with the dedicated community-based organizations here in the neighborhood. Their teams are out every day to engage with New Yorkers who gather in and around The Hub. They are the front line ensuring our neighbors who are using drugs know that resources are available and helping connect them to care. Sometimes that’s treatment or referral to supportive housing. Other times it’s administering or distributing naloxone, bandaging a wound, or simply bringing them into their spaces for a warm cup of coffee and somewhere comfortable to warm up.
Health Department teams distributed 43,000 naloxone kits in the Bronx last year and collected more than 187,000 syringes through outreach and syringe litter teams. We will continue our efforts to keep people alive and support New Yorkers who use drugs in their journey to recovery, whatever their path may be.
We also know housing is essential to health. Continuing to expand the availability of supportive housing for New Yorkers with serious mental illness or substance use disorder offers pathways to stability and recovery. Our partners at Unique People Services broke ground on a new building in [inaudible] just a few weeks ago which will connect even more people in the borough to affordable housing with supportive services.
It can be difficult to see folks in situations like the one before us. Addressing the deeply rooted consequences of historic disinvestment will take all of us working together. There is no one solution to these intersecting crises, but we cannot forget that at the heart of our efforts here are people. All New Yorkers deserve to be treated with dignity and live in a safe and clean environment. I’m grateful for the shared commitment of everyone here today. I look forward to continuing this collaboration with partners serving all of the people of the Bronx. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Joseph Varlack: Thank you, Dr. Wright. Now we will hear from DHS Crisis Coordinator Craig Himmons.
Craig Himmons, Crisis Coordinator, Department of Homeless Services: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Hi, everyone. My name is Craig, I’m a crisis coordinator for the Department of Homeless Services. It’s great to be here today. I’ve been working with the Department of Homeless Services as a crisis coordinator for about five years and I was involved in the previous Community Link here in The Hub and we were here every day for 60 days. We did outreach and we met with 880 people and we placed 45 people within our shelter system, in safe havens.
And in the beginning it was very overwhelming for us because here we are in a place that was in deep trouble. We had people who didn’t know who we were, but our consistency of coming every week for 60 days had them become comfortable with us and they were able to recognize us when we came. They knew why we were here and they listened and they were able to get their lives and get into another situation and become and welcome themselves and go to a safe haven.
And we used to canvas every Tuesday, every Thursday while we were here and while we were here the community helped us. Our sister agencies, Department of Health and Mental Health and Hygiene as well as NYPD and the community embraced us after we were able to help them throughout the month of December and January. We will continue our efforts to bring empathy and compassion with our work and we will come here as often as we can and whenever we’re able. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Joseph Varlack: Thank you Craig. Now we’re going to call up some of our strong partners in government starting with Councilmember Salamanca.
City Councilmember Rafael Salamanca: Alright buenos dias, buenos dias. I want to thank you Mr. Mayor and your team for being here today to highlight this important issue that as an elected official for the last nine years I’ve been combating. And as a lifelong resident, someone who lives in this community has lived his entire life and actually went to high school up the block on Alfred Smith High School has seen firsthand as a child, as an elected official and now raising my 10-year-old son he’s seen it as well.
You know the South Bronx knows all too well the personal and social impact that the drug epidemic has had in ravaging our borough, particularly on 149th Street and 3rd Avenue which we call The Hub. Born and raised in the Bronx, I have seen firsthand how addiction has torn families apart ending the promising futures of so many in the process. As a Bronxsnite the gravity of this pandemic is something that is baked into my conscience.
Of the thousands of New Yorkers who tragically pass away from overdose annually, Bronx residents have the highest rates of overdose death, 78 per every 100,000 New Yorkers. Overdose deaths remain higher among Blacks and Latinos, New Yorkers. In Hunts Point and Mott Haven, residents, both areas that I represent such as Assemblywoman Amanda Septimo and District Leader Freddy Perez, we’ve seen that we’ve had the highest rates of overdose year after year. This is troubling, this is a troubling reality and it is why I have made the offensive against illegal opioids one of my top priorities in the council.
In 2008 I helped create what’s called the Opioid Collective along with Acacia Network and the 3rd Avenue BID in which in the last six years I’ve brought in over six million dollars to bring key stakeholders together with the goal of preventing opioid related fatalities in our communities. And today I can tell you some of the work and some of the achievements that we’ve done with the six million dollars that I’ve been able to allocate here.
This year alone we’ve from July to January we’ve picked up over 50,000 syringes, we’ve done over 760 referrals to substance abuse programs or to primary cares, we’ve given out 1,800 fentanyl kits, we’ve given out 379 Narcan trainings, 880 sandwiches and we created what’s called a peer-on-peer programs where former users are out on the street on 149th Street talking to the current users to see how we can get them off the streets.
And about two years ago Mr. Mayor and I we opened up what’s called a safe haven directly across the street from Lincoln Hospital because we had an issue where individuals who were users were actually sleeping in the Lincoln Hospital waiting room and so we figured why not allow them give them a safe space where they can have a bed, they can have a meal, see a social worker, get a shower and see how we can address their wounds.
But the reality is that there is an oversaturation of not-for-profits providing services here on 149th Street and 3rd Avenue. When you have over 20 not-for-profits providing services in one particular area where they’re providing methadone, substance abuse, giving you needles, a needle exchange program and you have illegal drug dealing, you have exactly what you have on 149th Street and 3rd Avenue. And I am working with Assemblywoman Amanda Septimo because it is the state that gives these types of licenses.
What we need is fair share. I have over 60 homeless shelters in my district alone. You know when we’re talking about fair share, all parts of the borough and all parts of the city need to do their fair share. When you’re congregating all these services in one particular area you’re going to have people from all over the city and all over the Bronx coming to the South Bronx. And let me be clear, not everyone who’s getting services on 149th Street and 3rd Avenue is from the South Bronx. They’re from all parts of the city and from all parts of the borough.
And so while I thank you Mr. Mayor, I’m putting together this Community Link because you’ve heard our cries. I brought out then Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who is now the police commissioner. I brought out Jumaane Williams back in October, the public advocate. And just this January I did a walkthrough with your deputy mayor of Health so that they can actually see and feel what’s happening with this open drug market that’s happening on 149th Street and 3rd Avenue. So I welcome the resources that you’re giving us here with this Community Link and just know that you will have a partner in continuing to advocate and help our most vulnerable here in this area. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Joseph Varlack: Thank you very much, councilmember. I’d now like to call up Assemblywoman Septimo.
State Assemblymember Amanda Septimo: I will be brief because so many wonderful things have already been said about this initiative. We in the South Bronx understand that we are a community that has been historically underserved and historically under-invested in. And this is a program that is finally being responsive to the needs of the community and putting resources where they need to go.
But as my colleague in government, Councilmember Salamanca just said, the issues here are structural. This is critical service delivery that happens in this area. We know that folks who are struggling with substance abuse issues need support. We also know that those people exist in every single corner of this city and of this state. But for some reason, these services are always opening in communities like the South Bronx. That is something that we have to get to the heart of, or we will never effectively solve this issue.
We will continue to stay in the rat race, trying to outrun the problems that we’re creating with policies that are inequitable at their core. And so I want to thank the city for its leadership and listening to the folks on the ground. But I look forward to structural remedies that will finally get us out of this nightmare.
Y brevemente en español porque estamos en resistencia. Yo me llamo Amanda Septimo y soy la asambleísta aquí de esta área. Yo estoy muy agradecida a la ciudad porque está poniendo estos recursos a nuestra comunidad y por fin le está dando una voz a los problema que existen en esta comunidad. Pero este problema no se va erradicar solamente con estos recursos. Nosotros sabemos que estos programas son muy importantes porque la gente que está sufriendo con uso de drogas necesita el apoyo, son servicios críticos.
Pero también sabemos que esta gente existe por toda la ciudad y todo el estado. Pero por alguna razón estos programas solamente se abren en comunidades como el Bronx. Eso es el problema aquí que nosotros tenemos bastantes programas que están ofreciendo estos servicios y esto está creando este problema. Entonces, hasta que nosotros enfrentemos ese hecho no vamos a poder salvar esta área de este problema y liberar nuestro vecino de esta realidad.
Entonces le quiero dar las gracias a la ciudad por su liderazgo, por poner estos recursos en esta comunidad que lo necesita y espero que vamos a seguir adelante en este tema. Gracias.
Translation: And briefly in Spanish because we are in resistance. My name is Amanda Septimo and I am the assemblymember here for this area. I am very grateful to the city because it is providing these resources to our community and is finally giving a voice to the problems that exist in this community. But this problem will not be eradicated with these resources alone. We know that these programs are very important because people who are suffering with drug use need support, they are critical services.
But we also know that these people exist all over the city and all over the state. But for some reason these programs are only open in communities like the Bronx. That is the problem here that we have quite a few programs that are offering these services and this is creating this problem. So, until we face that fact we will not be able to save this area from this problem and free our neighbor from this reality.
So I want to thank the city for its leadership, for putting these resources in this community that needs them and I hope that we will move forward on this issue. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Joseph Varlack: Thank you. And finally, but certainly not least, I’d like to bring up the Bronx borough president, who I think in one of our last two conversations, she has been one of the loudest voices to make sure that the Bronx is not forgotten. And so I’d like to invite you up, borough president.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson: Thank you, deputy mayor. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for being here for such an important announcement. Let me acknowledge Mayor Eric Adams, our deputy mayor, City Hall executives, all of our partner agencies from the Department of Health, our Department of Homeless Services, NYPD, Department of Transportation, Department of Buildings, and Department of Sanitation, and everyone for this collective, multi-agency, multi-layered approach to addressing what I call a state of emergency.
Today’s announcement of Community Link takes us a step forward, a forward in our overall commitment to addressing the systemic issues that we continue to see here in the South Bronx, in The Hub, in the Melrose community, but let’s be honest, all over parts of our borough. This Community Link initiative recognizes that there are multiple layers to this work. Quality of life, sanitation, beautification, activating our open spaces, addressing the saturation of many of our social service programs, making sure that clients that are living with addiction and substance abuse have real holistic approaches to drug treatment and harm reduction programs.
For years, the community, the residents, the small businesses have been crying out for attention, and so today we take a bold step forward, but we have to recognize all of the work that has been done over the years to get us to this point. So I want to acknowledge all of my elected officials, from our councilmember to our assemblymember, our senator, our congressmember, everyone that’s been a part of these conversations for years. Your work is not unrecognized and unnoticed.
The Third Avenue BID and the work that Executive Director Pedro Suarez is doing, transforming lives every day in the streets, on the ground. Former staff member, now executive director at Southern Boulevard bid, Jay Medina. Together, Pedro and Jay have literally saved dozens of lives with naloxone kits, overdose death preventions, because every death we face is a death that is preventable, and I will not accept that here in the South Bronx, nowhere in our borough.
813 Bronx residents lost their lives in 2023 due to an opioid-related overdose death. That is a call to action, a call to attention, and frankly, it’s a state of emergency. My hope is that we will not only recognize the partners on the ground, from the Third Avenue BID to Community Board One, to all of our leaders and all of our service providers that are doing this work to stabilize clients, to give them pathways to healing and recovery, and most importantly, to save lives.
We will not allow our clients, our people, our individuals to die on our streets and stand by and do nothing. So my hope is that Community Link, coupled with many other efforts, we also launch Recovering Together, dealing with the opioid crisis right here in the Bronx, many parts of our neighborhoods, focusing on what I call informing, intervening, and investing. Invest in our communities, the programs we need. Focus on the quality of life, support the small businesses and the merchants that work in this corridor. The bid, The Hub, one of the largest transit-rich commercial corridors in the Bronx and the city of New York. Thousands of pedestrians, cyclists, bike riders, commuters, everyone that comes to The Hub each and every day. They deserve this and much more.
And so I recognize the leadership of our mayor and understand that this is long overdue, but very necessary. Mr. Mayor, you have our commitment. We will not allow this crisis to continue. That is why I’ve been working with our assemblywoman. Six million dollars we’re investing to build out the Lincoln Recovery Center and Bridge Clinic, so that we can centralize and streamline existing scatter programs in the South Bronx at Lincoln Hospital, working with Cristina Contreras and the Lincoln Hospital team. We cannot lose sight of the importance of this work. It is impactful. It makes a difference. It gives individuals hope when they feel hopeless. It lifts them up when they feel like drowning in their own addictions and trauma.
And so I just want everyone to understand this inter-agency coordination is important. We do not do this work in a silo. We need all hands on deck. Every single agency, every single stakeholder, every person that has a role in this area, we need you to understand that we are better when we work together. The lives that we are touching will make a difference for us. And if we can be successful here in the South Bronx, Melrose, Mott Haven, and The Hub, think about the message we send all across the Bronx.
And so I commend you and I say thank you for coming and recognizing this important initiative and what we expect to get. We will not lose sight of the importance. We will stay on it and we are here. We see you. To everyone out there, your circumstance does not define who you are. If you’re living with an addiction, we want to help you. Please allow us to help you so that you have real pathways to self-sufficiency, to independence, to supportive housing, to wraparound services, to workforce development, jobs, and employment opportunities. That’s how you lift families up and that’s how you build a healthier Bronx.
So I’m thankful for today. I look forward, Mr. Mayor, to this collaboration. To all of my colleagues, we look forward to even more opportunities, but we start right here on this day with Community Link and we look forward to the work ahead. Thank you so much, everyone.
February 20, 2025 , Manhattan, New York
Sources: NYC.gov , Midtown Tribune
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