The city of Chicago has created a new campaign to combat the opioid epidemic in five West Side neighborhoods after seeing a surge in overdoses.
Outreach workers hit the streets on Saturday morning, going from door to door in Austin on a mission to help save a life.
“We’ve had several people in our group who actually saved lives on the street for people going through overdoses as recent as last week,” said Chuck Levy, West Side Heroin and Opioid Task Force.
The efforts are part of the city’s new Summer Overdose Safety campaign to provide Narcan and to connect residents with resources and treatment right at their front door.
“We have had people collapse on our front steps,” said one homeowner. “We get it. It’s a very useful effort I think.”
Dozens of volunteers packed kits at the Austin Public Library and met with Mayor Brandon Johnson before canvassing two blocks.
“I know all of us have personal connections to this effort,” the mayor said. “You all know my brother had untreated trauma and died addicted and unhoused. I have another brother who is fighting through recovery now.”
The Chicago Department of Public Health said it has seen an alarming rise in opioid related overdoses in the past four years.
Around a third of those cases happened in five West Side neighborhoods: Austin, East Garfield Park, Humboldt Park, North Lawndale, and West Garfield Park.
“Sometimes people think, ‘I’m just taking a pill’ and they don’t know it’s contaminated with fentanyl, and it’s not just fentanyl now,” said Dr. Olusimbo “Simbo” Ige, commissioner of the CDPH. “We have Xylazine then something completely new that we hadn’t seen before – Medetomidine – where we’re seeing for the first time this year. It’s potent, and it’s not easily reversible.”
The health commissioner is worried about the summer months, saying the new synthetic substance is an animal tranquilizer.
“We first noticed it around the Mother’s Day weekend, May 11 weekend and on that day there were more than 50 EMS runs and that was the red alert that we got that something was going wrong,” she explained.
She and others hope the new campaign will make a difference.
“I’ve seen my family members affected by it, I’ve seen other families affected by it. It’s something that has to end,” said volunteer and West side resident Margo Caradine.
Outreach workers said their goal is to cover 1,300 blocks over the next 10 weeks.