We live in the Bronx, the borough most ravaged by the overdose crisis. And every year, on Aug. 31, International Overdose Awareness Day reminds us of the lives lost and the policies that failed them. That is today and the grief is unbearable, and proven solutions are under threat at nearly every level of government. If Gov. Hochul was courageous, expanding and investing in evidence-based solutions would be the obvious choice.
The overdose crisis is far from over, and that’s true outside of our city. From Buffalo to Rochester, Black, Brown, and poor New Yorkers are still dying at the highest rates. Overdose remains the leading cause of death for homeless New Yorkers. Our communities have been neglected, starved for resources because of policy decisions — and it is costing lives.
In our neighborhoods, overdose is not a statistic. It’s a father who loved to dance. It’s the man we met on outreach one freezing night, discharged from the hospital with no shoes — we gave him socks and a sandwich, only to learn he passed the next week. It’s the woman we trained to use Narcan who later told us she saved a life. It’s our friend whose name we now speak at vigils.
These are the faces of a crisis that was never inevitable. Overdose is preventable — but their deaths were the result of policy choices.
At the same time, New York is home to more billionaires than anywhere else in the world. In the face of federal cuts, Albany can — and must — reconvene a special session to make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share. Instead, the next wave of preventable overdose deaths is being set in motion by people in power, including Hochul.
In our city, Mayor Adams has doubled down on policies that undermine public health. His so-called “Quality of Life” initiatives target already stigmatized and vilified community members, pushing them further into the shadows. He used police theater to shut down the Hub — a tactic politicians have long used in the Bronx to look like they’re taking action, using our community as a backdrop for photo ops and press conferences while we continue to struggle without access to housing, services, or care.
At the federal level, Republicans have advanced a Trump-backed budget that hands out billions in tax breaks to the rich while slashing Medicaid, the vital health care nearly seven million New Yorkers rely on. Medicaid is also the largest funder of substance use treatment. These cuts would rip away medications like methadone and buprenorphine — the gold standard for treating opioid use disorder — from the people who depend on it.
Cutting access to these lifesaving medications isn’t just bad policy, it’s deadly. Within weeks, people are six times more likely to die. For our Bronx community, that means neighbors who have chosen treatment could be gone tomorrow.
The governor has failed to meet the moment. She claims New York is powerless in the face of federal cuts, but that is a lie. By protecting billionaires instead of people, she is putting lives at risk. Her refusal to tax the ultra-rich — the same people getting richer while our communities lose health care and services — is cowardly.
Any idea to raid opioid settlement funds to plug budget gaps is a betrayal to the very people whose deaths spurred those lawsuits. That money was meant to heal the wounds of this crisis — not to cover Albany’s budget holes.
Now the governor is directing agencies to prepare cuts, and we know what that means: lifesaving harm reduction programs will be first on the chopping block. The slight decrease in overdose deaths proves that evidence-based, harm reduction solutions work — not criminalization, not coercion, not divestment.
But New Yorkers have never waited for politicians to save us. For decades, people who use drugs, those living with HIV, and neighbors without stable housing have led the fight: creating syringe service programs, building harm reduction networks, and demanding humane, equitable treatment and housing. Their work has saved thousands of lives.
Today, on International Overdose Awareness Day, we collectively honor those we’ve lost — siblings, children, friends, and our neighbors. And, we demand action from our governor. Every excuse, every delay, every empty press conference is another nail in our communities’ coffin.
Hochul can tax the rich and save lives — or continue to protect billionaires and let New Yorkers die. The choice is hers, and history will remember which side she took.
Collins and Reyes are longtime Bronx residents, community leaders, and board members at VOCAL-NY.
