14
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, FEB. 17, 2019
CENTER
said Jeff Sanoff. “Let’s get
rid of liquor stores.”
Sanoff and fellow Coney
Islanders voiced their concerns
about the LSA Recovery
facility during a Feb.
4 meeting of Community
Board 13’s Health Committee,
where other locals argued
the center could bring
undesirable characters to
the neighborhood.
“It’s not a good attraction,”
said CB13 member
Pat Brown.
Six Health Committee
members unanimously
voted against the panel issuing
a letter of support
for the center — a formal
missive LSA Recovery program
director Ertuania
Jorge requested to show
community backing for the
facility, which the state offi
ce of Alcohol and Substance
Abuse and the city
offi ce of Mental Health and
Hygiene already approved
applications for.
Jorge, however, still
hopes CB13’s full board
will ultimately vote in favor
of issuing the letter at
its Feb. 27 general meeting,
because she wants to work
in tandem with the community
— where the center’s
services are urgently
needed, she said.
“I’m very surprised
that they rejected it, with
the opioid epidemic and everything
that’s going on,
and the services we’re going
to provide,” she said.
In 2017, 1,487 city residents
died from unintentional
drug overdoses — and
Coney Island, together with
Brighton Beach, Manhattan
Beach, and Sheepshead
Bay, racked up higher-thanaverage
overdose deaths
that year, with an average
of 22.3 fatal incidents occurring
among every 100,000
residents of those neighborhoods,
compared to an average
of 21.2 deaths among
every 100,000 residents of
other neighborhoods citywide,
statistics show .
LSA Recovery’s Coney
center is slated to fi ll
two fl oors of an eight-story
building on Stillwell Avenue
between Mermaid and
Neptune avenues.
It would be similar to
the fi rm’s existing Midwood
outpost, which currently
employs about 20 staffers
and serves about 150 clients,
who spend an average of between
six months and a year
receiving regular treatment
at the facility, including
counseling sessions, medication
assisted treatment,
and substance-abuse education,
according to Jorge.
And the center would
not use the controversial
opiate methadone to wean
patients off of other addictive
drugs, she said.
“This is the least intensive
substance abuse program
there is,” she said.
But the committee members
questioned the need for
LSA to open another location
so close to its Midwood
site — especially in Coney,
where locals can already
seek treatment at two existing
outpatient centers, Coney
Island Hospital’s Ida G.
Israel Community Health
Center, and the Merryland
Health Center on Mermaid
Avenue at W. 17th Street.
“What makes you different
from the facilities that
are in the neighborhood?”
asked CB13 Health Committee
chairman Alex Chadaev.
Jorge explained the center
could serve even more
residents because its counselors
speak seven languages,
including Russian,
Hebrew, Ukrainian, and
Farsi.
But the committee members
said cultural competency
wasn’t good enough,
and demanded she hand
over data supporting the
necessity of another recovery
center in the neighborhood
— which she allegedly
promised to provide
at a previous meeting with
the board, according to its
chairwoman.
“I don’t know why she
has to come in here when
we have the same facility
that people in the neighborhood
are already using,”
said JoAnn Weiss. “She still
hasn’t given us the numbers
that we asked for at the last
meeting, the numbers that
prove that this is needed in
the neighborhood.”
Weiss also raised concerns
about security at the
new facility, especially if it
will serve people from beyond
Coney Island.
“I’m worried about security,
you have to have
some sort of security there
because you never know
what’s going to happen,”
she said. “Are they local
patients or are you people
bringing people in from
the outside?”
The center would prioritize
catering to Coney Islanders,
but treat patients
from across the city if necessary,
according to Jorge,
who said there is no security
plan currently in place
because the Midwood center
has operated without
incident since it opened 10
years ago.
Continued from page 1
NOT WANTED: Members of Community Board 13’s Health Committee
refused to issue a letter of support for the planned LSA Recovery
facility on Stillwell Avenue, claiming recovering addicts can
already seek treatment at two other rehab centers in the neighborhood.
Photo by Steve Solomonson
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