Abstract This blog compares Kensington to other high-crisis areas within the nation such as New York, Vermont, Oregon, and California. It aims to demonstrate the similarities in patterns that these areas have with each other, arguing that the crisis is a reflection of the systemic failures in areas like housing, health care, policing, and social welfare. The post concludes by outlining structural reforms needed to break the vicious cycle of addiction and prevent future public health crises.
Keywords
national comparison, public health systems, housing instability, overdose crisis, structural reform, future implications
Opioid addiction is limited not only to Philadelphia. This crisis occurs nationwide throughout America: in New York City, rural Vermont, San Francisco, and Portland. These communities all share a commonality in the fact that they face housing instability, economic struggles, in addition to other trends related to police racialized discrimination.
The impact felt within the city of New York, particularly within areas like Harlem and Bronx face a rising of overdose death statistics. According to the NYC health department, “in the city’s 77 community districts, the highest rates of overdose death in 2023 in New York City occurred in the Bronx, with 78.0 per 100,000 residents. Neighborhoods within the Bronx and other boroughs that regularly reported high rates of lethal overdose in the city include Hunts Point-Mott Haven, Crotona-Tremont, and Highbridge-Morrisania, although it’s likely that other communities are experiencing intense suffering as well.”
The state of Vermont is also among those experiencing high overdose death statistics, and this is due to a lack of resources and being located far from treatment facilities. Provisional CDC mortality statistics shows that Vermont’s drug overdose death rate was 42.3 per 100,000 in 2023, which is significantly above the national average. In addition, the state health data show there were 183 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2024, with a rate of 28.3 per 100,000.
Likewise, the West Coast also struggles to combat homelessness, mental health, and overdosing, attributed to synthetic drugs. In Multnomah County, Oregon (home to Portland), county health statistics reported 456 deaths among people experiencing homelessness in 2023, in which 282 of those were caused by drug overdoses; 89% involving fentanyl. Notably, homelessness is strongly correlated with a high overdose mortality all because of unstable living conditions, limited access to healthcare, and high exposure to illicit drugs.
Such examples aim to illustrate how the problem of the opioid crisis affects the whole country, as there are neither sufficient and effective health care facilities nor harm reduction initiatives in the US.
For Philadelphia, the takeaways are simple:
- Housing has to be taken into account as a healthcare service.
Perpetual housing shortages will continue to fuel addiction, relapse, and poor treatment outcomes, reinforcing homelessness as both a cause and consequence of substance use disorder.
- Investment should also go into education, job creation, and community care
Children and families in affected neighborhoods may experience long-term impacts through exposure to trauma, unstable caregiving environments, and reduced educational opportunities.
- Opportunity for Structural Reform
If addressed accordingly, the crisis could become a catalyst to start broader reforms in housing, healthcare access, mental health services, and racial equity policy.
Home Page: Understanding Philadelphia's Opioid Crisis: A Structural Approach 