KENSINGTON
Many of these homeless individuals had an even graver reality: they were addicted to opioids. Their behavior was striking: hunched over and completely disconnected from the outside world, they wandered through trains, stations, and concentrated in a specific area: Kensington in Philadelphia.
On several occasions, I passed through this neighborhood, which was once famous for housing Rocky Balboa's house and even the gym where he trained. But since I arrived, the focus shifted to this apocalyptic reality, where thousands of humans roamed like zombies. Every day you saw an ambulance picking up a corpse of someone who died from an overdose.
Traveling by car was already shocking, but the view from the city train was even worse. When you leave downtown Philadelphia, the train becomes elevated above the city, offering a view of its streets and avenues. In the carriage, many of the addicts were in a trance, folded between the seats, lost between the stations, injecting themselves in plain sight. But that wasn't the only reality: looking out the window, you could see this no-man's-land stretching for dozens of blocks, delivering a dose of harsh reality. They were thousands, grouped in tents, squares, in front of houses, on many streets. This was the view from above, and it was a big problem.
Why do so many people consume opioids? The light opinions I formed at first changed drastically when I became involved in American life. In schools, if your child is very restless, they refer and recommend prescribing medication because they are hyperactive. If they are very calm, they refer and recommend prescribing medication because they have attention deficit. If your daughter breaks up with her boyfriend in adolescence and becomes upset, they prescribe medication because she is depressed. If your son, still young, is sent to war, upon his return, they prescribe medication to ease the shock or pain of war. If your back or knee hurts, they prescribe medication to alleviate the pain. The problem is that it's not just any medication; it's drugs with a high content of opioids.
Once medicated, many of these "patients" become addicted. The high costs are covered by insurance, insurance premiums rise, and for many, they become unaffordable. When the dose is no longer covered, they seek street alternatives, and there emerges a place: a neighborhood where fentanyl distributors sell doses unopposed for three dollars, less than the cost of a beer in a bar.
The situation in Kensington worsened since 2017, making headlines in recent years due to the shocking images resulting from this opioid epidemic. And although the cost of each dose is cheap, being in this trance and homeless did not provide access for these people to generate money through their own efforts. So, every time they regained some consciousness, they would break a window to steal, prostitute themselves, or even commit violence in some homes in search of money for their injection. Needles hung from wounded bodies; each dose was a small stab that infected weak bodies. Many syringes were the carpet of entire streets.
This situation led many families to try to flee the area, and that's when large construction companies and real estate businesses came in, buying at bargain prices. Suddenly, in a neighborhood full of addicts, old houses were destroyed, and large complexes of modern houses were erected, still with zombies in front of them. And the prices of these new houses started to fluctuate between 500,000 and 1,000,000 dollars. And in 2024 came a new mayor who promised to end the anarchy in Kensington.
Parker announced that the neighborhood's recovery would be through a coordinated plan between city care agencies and non-governmental organizations, to provide treatment and relocation to these individuals. But reality differed greatly from what was proposed. On May 8, in the early hours, the police dismantled tents and sprayed water at all the addicts who remained in the area. Hours later, water flowed through the streets, and Kensington looked cleared. But the people didn't disappear into the sewer, as the city authorities seemed to intend. Instead, the addicts roamed through other neighborhoods, in the northeast, south, west, throughout the city. And this reality, which focused heavily on one sector, is now in every corner. And while Kensington flourishes with prices inaccessible to those who once inhabited it, owners of other neighborhoods see how real estate giants are already approaching to offer cents in the areas where the displaced arrive.
If the city of Philadelphia truly wants to solve the problem of opioids and its derivatives, it must first become zero-tolerant with fentanyl distributors. Generate a treatment plan to reduce the dependence of these individuals and establish a social reintegration project that must be patient and medium-term. An addiction like this isn't solved by snapping fingers.
It all sounds possible, but the biggest obstacle is still standing, one for the benefits it receives as the genesis: PHARMACEUTICALS, and another that receives million-dollar profits from the consequences: REAL ESTATE.
I've got them pinned down.
Julio César Rivas
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