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City & state: The quest to end legal protections for public employees in NY – and not just police:

Right now, the impact of the city law remains unclear due to a lack of data to analyze yet, according to VOCAL-NY’s Keli Young, the police reform group’s civil rights campaign coordinator.  However, New York’s proposal would go further than the city’s law, and even those in Colorado and New Mexico. Unlike in those instances, […]

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FILTER MAGAZINE: HOW “DANIEL’S LAW” COULD TRANSFORM NY MENTAL HEALTH RESPONSE:

On January 25, the harm reduction organization VOCAL-NY is holding an advocacy day in Albany, urging the passage of Daniel’s Law “to end the criminalization of mental illness and substance use disorder, especially in Black and brown communities.” Daniel’s Law would create a statewide council and numerous smaller regional or local councils, responsible for setting up “emergency and crisis

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AMNY: City Council eyes expanding CityFHEPS housing benefit program to help vulnerable New Yorkers find permanent housing:

Celina Trowell, a homelessness organizer with VOCAL-NY, said the CityFHEPS program is “one of the most successful tools that we have in the city to try and get people out of shelters into permanent safe housing.” Trowell flagged issues and shortcomings, ranging from administrative flaws and errors when processing CityFHEPS applications, structural barriers, and long delays that

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GOTHAM GAZETTE: What Wasn’t in Hochul’s 2023 State of the State Agenda:

“The Governor’s answer to the worst overdose crisis in New York’s history is to increase penalties for fentanyl and drug-induced homicide laws that only advance the War on Drugs, rather than the fight to save lives,” said Jawanza Williams, director of organizing for VOCAL-NY, an advocacy group. “Most egregious of all: Hochul’s complete omission of

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TIMES UNION: Cautious policies for opioid crisis miss the mark, advocates say:

Jasmine Budnella, the director of policy for VOCAL-NY, a drug-user advocacy group, applauded the investment in drug-checking technology and pointed to its pilot use at New York City’s two safe injection sites, also referred to as overdose prevention centers, where staff have been utilizing drug-checking technology to screen users’ samples.  Advocates are still disappointed in

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CITY & STATE: Will hochul come around on supervised injection sites?:

Last year, a state panel tasked with determining how to spend over $2 billion in settlement funds from drug companies that had a role in the addiction crisis recommended that some of that money should fund the supervised injection sites. But the governor’s administration rejected that proposal. State Office of Addiction Services and Support Commissioner Chinazo

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PATCH: NYC Stalls Vital OD Data, Puts Safe Injection Sites At Risk:

NEW YORK CITY — The true scope of New York City’s fatal overdose problem for the past two years remains unknown because city officials have dragged their feet on the literal life-and-death data, advocates charged. The city needs to release fatal overdose numbers from three months of 2021 and all of 2022, advocates with VOCAL-NY

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New york daily news: No Harm done: overdose prevention centers must stay open

Just over a year after New York City led the nation in establishing two overdose prevention centers to serve people at risk of falling to a continuing epidemic of opioid abuse, not only have no additional facilities opened, the existing ones are now at risk of closing. The centers, run by nonprofit OnPoint, could run out

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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: NY GOP leaders say Gov. Hochul pick Hector LaSalle deserves fair shot as state’s chief judgeNEW YORK DAILY NEWS:

The state’s top court has been highly criticized in recent years as a quartet of conservative-leaning judges led by DiFiore dominated decisions from the seven-member panel. “New Yorkers have been promised a break from the past administration, but Hector LaSalle’s background suggests that he would instead continue this tradition of Cuomoism to the detriment of

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: NY GOP leaders say Gov. Hochul pick Hector LaSalle deserves fair shot as state’s chief judgeNEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Read More »

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