ON PINS & NEEDLES AT INJECT SITE
Washington Heights program unauthorized by city, supervised by controversial couple
The line forms early outside a Dollar Plus storefront on W. 181st St. in Washington Heights.
Men and women queue up for a chance to get into the Washington Heights Corner Project, a nonprofit needleexchange program on the second floor — where they're allowed to inject illegal narcotics inside bathrooms equipped with intercoms in case of an overdose.
The site functions as an off-the-radar version of what the city hopes will be the first government-monitored supervised injection sites in the United States: safe spaces where addicts can shoot up without interference from the police.
Mayor de Blasio has endorsed a plan to locate four sites citywide, including one at the Washington Heights location.
But no supervised injection site has been officially approved in the city — and there are doubts it will ever happen, given that the Department of Justice opposes the idea.
And as of this week, city and state health officials said they were not aware of Washington Heights Corner Project's bathroom arrangement.
Officials were also unaware that the couple who now runs the Corner Project — Liz Evans and Mark Townsend — had to resign in 2014 from a supervised injection site in Canada after government auditors uncovered lavish spending on fancy restaurants, limo rides and four-star hotels in Europe.
Since then, Evans and Townsend relocated to New York and began running the Washington Heights Corner Project — and promoting the idea of opening more sites in the city.
This year Evans was appointed to an advisory panel on the subject by the city Health Department and was quoted by Mayor de Blasio in his May 4 press release announcing the push for the sites.
“It's very exciting to see the Mayor support this evidencebased lifesaving strategy to end suffering for people struggling with drug dependency,” her quote said. “Injection sites save lives and restore hope and dignity to individuals, families and communities.”
In an interview last fall with CNN, Evans openly discussed the bathroom arrangement in Washington Heights. Last week Townsend admitted to The News that clients have used the bathrooms to shoot up but made it clear that the Corner Project is not telling them to use the facility for this purpose.
"If you're talking about bathrooms, yes, that's more controversial. But it's not illegal. This year we've saved 156 people's lives. … All the bathrooms around here, people are injecting in — in our bathroom, in that store's bathroom, everywhere,” he said.
In the CNN piece, no mention was made of the British Columbia government releasing audits in March 2014 by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and B.C. Housing in conjunction with the auditing firm KPMG that detailed an alarming pattern of questionable and often unexplained expenses by the group Evans and Townsend then ran, the Portland Hotel Society (PHS).
Overall auditors found PHS had spent more than $69,000 over three years on restaurants and $300,000 on travel to Vienna, Paris, Istanbul, Los Angeles and New York City. Many of the expenses for out-of-country travel, entertainment and catering had no back-up documentation, and PHS made thousands of dollars in payments to contractors with financial ties to PHS personnel.
The details were extravagant. Evans and Townsend spent $9,031 for a stay at the Plaza Hotel, where Evans also dropped $178 at the Lotus Salon and $57 at the Blow Styling Salon “getting her hair done before a presentation,” auditors wrote.
Auditors also noted internal conflicts of interest. PHS paid Townsend and Evans $1,600 a month to rent space for their offices in the basement of their home, while a PHS manager approved a $13,887 payment to a company he owned called Bugs Be Gone.
They found PHS spent $32,000 related to a 2010 trip to Austria for a conference, including $10,636 at the fivestar Hotel Bristol in Vienna and $4,456 to a Paris tour operator.
Another $5,832 paid for a cruise on the Danube River for a PHS employee and $2,694 went to a stay at the Disney Resort Grand Anaheim in California.
PHS said the group paid for the Disneyland hotel room for two adults and two children for a staff member “in poor health.” Investigators discovered the “staff member” was one of the group's directors.
And they were quite generous about spending on PHS staff celebrations, dropping $1,636 at a restaurant for an employee appreciation event, $917 on goods for a worker's baby shower and $1,807 for a company Christmas dinner, the audit stated.
When the results were made public in 2014, Evans, her husband and two other PHS directors agreed to resign, and a new board was appointed. A year later, Evans and Townsend popped up in New York City.
Townsend is not listed on any of the most recent tax documents — 2015 to 2017 — for the Washington Heights Corner Project or an affiliated group, New York Harm Reduction Educators, but he said Friday he's employed by both as director of syringe access and outreach and director of harm reduction making, $77,436 last year. Evans is listed on the tax forms as executive director of both groups. Townsend said she makes an annual salary of $145,000, though the tax forms filed with the IRS state that she is receiving zero
compensation. He said the groups expect to update the forms following an internal audit.
Before Evans and Townsend showed up at the facility, the Washington Heights Corner Project had been getting substantial state grants for years to run a needle-exchange program. The most recent grants were awarded last month, two years after Evans and Townsend started running the place. They total $2.9 million from the state Department of Health.
In applying for these grants, the group in March was asked in a vendor questionnaire if any “key employee” within the last five years had been subject to “an investigation whether open or closed by any government entity for a civil or criminal violation for any businessrelated conduct?”
In its response, Washington Heights Corner Project responded “no,” making no reference to the Vancouver audits or the forced resignations of Evans and Townsend from the Portland Hotel Society.
The form notes that the “intentional submission of false or misleading information may result in criminal penalties.”
In an interview with The News last week, Townsend contended that the “no” answer was truthful because “we weren’t audited. It was a review. That isn’t a civil matter or a criminal matter.”
Townsend claimed all of the hotel, restaurant, limo and spa spending the auditors singled out for criticism was funded by private, not public, donations, though the auditors found there was little backup documentation to explain the business-related reasons for the questionable expenses.
He labeled the government findings “political,” stating: “In terms of that, when you try and get things done when you try and make real change, especially when you go up against the government, that can cause problems.”
“Politicians come after you,” he added.
Last week Marcy Miranda, a spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio, said, “We are looking into these allegations. This is one of four state-licensed needle exchanges that approached the city about running an overdose-prevention center. To operate in New York City, these sites must meet the highest operational standards and receive the necessary approvals from the State Health Department, the local District Attorney and Council Member, and conduct extensive engagement with the surrounding community.”
A spokesman for the state Department of Health, Jonah Bruno, told the News “DOH is currently reviewing the efficacy of safe-consumption sites and has not approved any location for this purpose. Needle-exchange programs serve an at-risk, vulnerable population who often suffer from and are susceptible to various health conditions. It is possible that people in needle-exchange restrooms could experience a variety of medical emergencies and require immediate intervention. We encourage all healthcare facilities to take precautions to safeguard the wellbeing of the people they serve.”
On a recent morning, two women who waited for the doors to open at the Corner Project’s needle exchange – Marcia Wilson, 59, and Ali Darveaux, 35, — described to The News what happens inside.
They said addicts gather in front around 9 a.m. When the doors open, they go to the counter and ask for clean needles. According to Darveaux, the people who work there give you “a oneshot kit, which is sterile water, a clean cooker to mix it in, cotton -- everything you need in a sterile set-up.”
After they get the needles, they wait in line for one of the two bathrooms. They get 15 minutes in the bathroom. Wilson and Darveaux noted that some people use the bathroom simply to clean up, but most go inside to shoot up.
During the 15 minutes, staffers knock on the door every three to five minutes to make sure the person inside is OK.
Each bathroom has an intercom and a buzzer that unlocks the door so staff can enter if there’s no response. Staff members have Narcan on hand at all times.
“It’s a needle exchange, but it’s also a place where you can use your drugs safely,” Wilson said. “They give you water, alcohol pads, whatever you need to keep things sterile. They let you use the bathroom, and they check on you every five minutes to see if you’re OK. If you don’t answer, they’re coming in.”
“Nobody’s going to die here,” she added, noting that the staff is hyper-vigilant about checking the restrooms because, she said, they know people might be shooting up.
Darveaux said she’s been in New York for about a year and has been coming to the facility since October. She is homeless, and originally from Tallahassee, Fla.
“It’s a dope hole where you can come to get enough rope to hang yourself with,” she said. “They allow a lot of stuff to go on up there that they shouldn’t. There are five people sitting up there at any one time, and they go and use the bathroom for 15 minutes to ‘use the bathroom.’ As long as they don’t see it, they won’t say nothing.”