New plan vs. opioids in Bx. ‘hole’

Mayor de Blasio rolled out a plan aimed at beating back the opioid epidemic in the South Bronx — just blocks from a once-notorious shooting gallery where the struggle of addicts was chronicled by the Daily News.

“The Bronx has a history of dealing with some of the toughest challenges in this city but not getting the support it deserved. And that is part of why we still have a lot of work to do here,” de Blasio said Wednesday at a press conference in the Melrose neighborhood.

The South Bronx has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the city — twice the rate of the rest of the city, officials said. But de Blasio said he was rolling out a more “aggressive” approach to meet people where they are, involving local hospitals, peer advocates, harm reduction groups and clergy in the effort to help people struggling with addiction. That, he said, was based on efforts that had been successful in Staten Island — a borough different from the South Bronx in many ways but also ravaged by opioid abuse.

“What we saw work in Staten Island can certainly work here,” de Blasio said.

De Blasio was just blocks from an abandoned railroad cut dubbed “the hole” that had long been home to heroin addicts and which the News wrote about last May. Hizzoner said spots like that are no longer being tolerated.